Why did continuously operating radio beacons improve on shore stations that handled one vessel at a time?

Continuously operating radio beacons significantly improved upon shore-based direction-finding stations by eliminating the bottleneck of handling only one vessel at a time.

When shore stations were responsible for determining a ship's position, they were limited by their capacity to process individual requests. This created a serious drawback during periods of heavy demand, such as in bad weather when many vessels required assistance simultaneously. By shifting the direction-finding equipment to the ship and placing continuously operating transmitters on shore, the system could no longer be overloaded, as any number of vessels could receive the signals at once.

This transition provided navigators with two additional key advantages:
* The ability to take continuous or frequent bearings on any shore beacon as needed.
* The flexibility to take bearings from any receivable signal, including transmissions from other vessels or commercial broadcasting stations.1

This development proved essential for both maritime safety and the emerging field of aviation, where the airborne radio direction finder became a vital navigational tool.1