Radio Shack MX-500TM manual Glossary

17. Glossary

frequencies higher than the industry standard. Some examples would be Bang & Olufsen, Kenwood (455KHz) and older Pioneer Elite (1.125MHz). Such devices are never preprogrammed into off-the-shelf remote controls and can generally only be used with very specific learning remote controls.

Infrared: "IR" A portion of the light spectrum below our visible range, used by many modern remote controls to transmit signals. The MX-500TMuses IR signals.

Infrared emitter: A light emitting diode used to transmit infrared signals from a remote control. Generally, the more and better the emitters, the stronger and wider the resulting signal. A remote with strong emitters can generally be used without pointing at the desired device. Emitters are also partially responsible for any limits on the range of frequencies that can be controlled. Emitters are always placed at the "top" of a remote control and are typically shielded by a red plastic window. The MX-500TMhas 2 very strong IR emitters.

Infrared receiver: The portion of a device that receives infrared commands from a remote control. Since infrared is actually light, it requires line-of-sight visibility for best operation, but can still be reflected by items such as walls and glass. Poorly placed IR receivers can also result in what is called "tunnel vision," where they are set so far back into the chassis of a device that the operational range of any remote control is severely reduced.

Joystick: A feature on some remote controls, the joystick is a single pointer which replicates five functions for menu

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