Assuming you're an ARRL member, go to
http://www.arrl.org, and in the "MEMBERS ONLY" section (right side of the page), click on QST/QEX articles heading. This will bring you to a search screen that will let you type a keyword. In the keyword field, type BEACONS and you'll find more than 100 articles on beacons, how to build them, how to use them, where they are, what they're for, etc. It's quite a long list of articles.
73 de Steve WB2WIK/6