A system and method of enhancing transmission of highly detectable pilots (HDPs). At least one base station transmits at least one cellular signal in which each cellular signal includes repetitive HDP cycles. Each HDP cycle has a duration of N power control groups (PCGs) and includes an HDP period having a duration of M PCGs in which N is greater than M. Traffic and overhead channels are gated during each HDP period. An enhanced HDP symbol is transmitted during a selected HDP period for each set of X HDP cycles of each cellular signal. For single carrier configurations, only one enhanced HDP is transmitted at a time, or multiple HDPs are transmitted in different directions. Standard 1x pilots may be transmitted. The enhanced HDP may be a boosted standard 1x pilot or an additional standard HDP pilot. Multicarrier configurations are described with PCG or sub-chip and/or phase offsets.