Pinger strength
I have no connection with the aircraft industry but have been following with interest some of the very technical discussions on this forum.
One thing I do not understand is why the pinger signal is so weak. I would have expected that there would have been a massive 'ping', perhaps every hour, which would allow those searching to at least obtain an approximate bearing. Limiting a higher output to each hour would make almost no difference to battery life.
Submarines have very sensitive listening gear and one would expect them to locate the recorders more readily. Or have I missed something?