A virtual coil emulation method is used in a magnetic resonance imaging scan for acquiring a magnetic resonance image of an object (10). The scan is performed by an MR system (1) using a physical coil arrangement (9; 11; 12; 13) including a set of individual transmit coils. The coils are adapted for transmission of a desired RF transmit field to the object (10) for magnetic resonance spin excitation of the object (10). Each coil is associated with a physical transmit channel. The RF transmit field corresponds to a virtual arrangement of two or more of the coils. Virtual transmit channel properties include virtual transmit channel weights are assigned to the RF transmit field which describe the virtual complex RF field amplitudes with respect to each individual coil of the virtual coil arrangement to be applied to the physical coils (9; 11; 12; 13) for generating the RF transmit field.