---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 C.F.R. § 62.53"
title: "33"
number: "62.53"
heading: "Racons."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/33/62.53"
---

# §62.53. Racons.

- (a) Aids to navigation may be enhanced by the use of radar beacons (racons). Racons, when triggered by a radar signal, will transmit a coded reply to the interrogating radar. This reply serves to identify the aid station by exhibiting a series of dots and dashes which appear on the radar display in a line emanating radially from just beyond the echo of the aid station. Although racons may be used on both laterally significant and non-laterally significant aids alike, the racon signal itself is for identification purposes only, and therefore carries no lateral significance.
- (b) **Racons are also used as bridge marks to mark the best point of passage.**

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 14 U.S.C. 544; 43 U.S.C. 1333; 46 U.S.C. 70031, 70041; DHS Delegation 00170.1, Revision No. 01.4.

### Source

Source: CGD 86-031, 52 FR 42640, Nov. 6, 1987, unless otherwise noted.