[J_Player]

Interesting photos, Mike(Mont). After looking at the pictures of the magnacast 5000 and the VR 2000 Mexico trip pictures, It appears that the "Forward Gauss" machines are actually AM transmitters and special receiving antennas that locate places of varying signal strength. In addition to the scan gun, the VR 2000 and magnacast 5000 also contain a loop antenna which looks similar to the antennas used in radio direction finders. The loop antenna for the Magnacast 5000 is a larger rectangular antenna compared to the red square antenna shown on the VR 2000 photo.

From what I have seen in the photos and manual, it appears the "Forward Gauss" methods center around broadcasting an AM radio signal, then surveying the air out in front of the broadcast antenna for signal strength. Presumably, the signal will be stronger depending on the existence of a target in the ground. The two devices used to measure signal strength are the loop antenna, and the "Scan Gun". The loop antenna is probably a simple coil of wire designed to pick up the signal that was broadcast and allow a survey of where the strong signals areas are. The "Scan gun" does not give many clues just looking at it, but I would think maybe it works similar to a RF sniffer that is tuned to the broadcast frequency. Perhaps it performs a functions similar to the loop antenna, but with finer resolution, or maybe it is designed to pick up a RF signal that is to be demodulated.