Hello, I have long thought I wanted to know a full list of these beacons
also.

They come in two types, firstly, the aeronautical beacons, and secondly
the maritime beacons.  I don't know what the bands are for either, but I
do know that the maritime ones have different power outputs according to
the importance of them.  These have been on the decline for several
years due to more sophisticated electronic methods.

Certainly, the aircraft beacons are still used for navigational
purposes.
They are  used to define routes by way marks, and I suspect that GPs is
taking over from them.

Here (27 miles Southwest from London, 51 14 north, 00 32 west) I am
about 20 miles south of Heathrow airport, the major London airport, and
only 4.5 miles to the Northeast is a beacon with the ident of OCK. and
to the Southwest of me is one with the ident of MID.  These two define
an amber route.  This is a route which can be in either direction
according to prevailing weather conditions.  On a westerly approach to
Heathrow, the pilots look for WOD - the Woodley beacon.

The usual antenna array is a circle of phased dipoles so that the
radiation pattern is out from the central mark.

I hope this helps to explain the nature and purpose of the beacons, but
I do not know of a web-based list, but should you want to know the
location of a specific one, I have several pilot contacts who will
willingly look them up.

Happy Christmas to one and all!

73 de Dave

I think you wrote  below <[log in to unmask]>,
Walt Smith <[log in to unmask]> writes
>I've been meaning to ask this and now that a friend has posed the same
>question, I'll ask for both of us.  In the LW band, down below 530 KHz.,
>there are a lot of CW transmissions that I'm pretty sure are airport
>beacons.  Sometimes, you hear three-character transmissions that are clearly
>location (airport, I assume) identifiers; other times you hear "le" or "ri"
>(I think it's "ri") that I assume are the "left" and "right" beacons for
>instrument landing approach.  Is there a list anywhere of the location codes
>for these beacons?  Thanks and happy holidays to all.
>
>--
> Walt Smith - Raleigh, NC
> [log in to unmask]

--
David W Wood