Hi Scott…I don’t know how important the transmit power is beyond what is available with our current crop of VLF detectors. It seems to me that if further increasing the transmit power would produce significant or practically useful depth improvements, then the manufacturers would have done it already. But that’s guesswork on my part.
Then too, some modern VLF units offer TX adjustments or a 'transmit boost' function to improve depth. I have no firsthand experience to know how much these features improve depth .
As to how much extra power would needed to generate a meaningful depth increase. Here’s a response from a White’s engineer I found on a different forum …
“TX Boost: This feature boosts the TX voltage from 10V to 30V. The age-old claim that the FCC limits detector TX power IS A MYTH. What happens when you turn on TX Boost? Well, you get only a very slight increase in depth, with a major drain on batteries. This is the REAL reason that detector TX power is limited, and why the deepest detectors require a motorcycle battery. I rarely use TX Boost... but in one heavily hunted field, I found a very silent area, turned it on, and started getting faint deep signals. So it can be useful in certain situations." You may have to adjust the gain if you boost the TX but it all just depends on the situation.”
Perhaps someone with expertise on the subject will enlighten us further. I’ve asked your question elsewhere and may have more information to post in a few days…depending on what I learn…but no promises...
Jim.
