On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:04:18 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

How do I know if a tv signal amplifier** will also transmit IR signals
or maybe they are converted IR signals in the opposite direction?

**Like is used to go from a VCR to an distant analog TV, especially
if there were signal-weakening splitters for other tvs in between.

Rather than answering your question directly, I'm going to ask you to think
about what sort of hardware would be required to do that. You can then
figure it out for yourself, and you'll have learned something in the
process.

Well, I understand your desire to make this a learning experience for
me**.

I did think about it quite a bit, even before calling the company, and
I couldn't figure out how to do it, which is why I thought his answer
would be No, nothing else works. It occured to me but didn't seem
likely that there were two amps going in the opposite direction, one
for the RF and one for the IR


**Back in 1964, my cousin had turned 80 and he gave me his '50
Oldsmobile. At the same time, he also gave me a 1amp battery
charger. The battery went dead every night, and I had to borrow my
mother's car to get to work. After trying one night (from 5:30 to
10:30 to fix it) I tried to find someplace that had the wiring
diagram, and eventually I did, but he wouldn't lend it to me, or even
show it to me.*** I don't know if that was his real reason, but he
said I needed to do it the hard way and learn something. I spent 4
nights in a row unscrewing connectors and putting them back. For test
equipment, I had only a 110volt lightbulb and an ice pick, to pierce
insulation. One or two days in, I found what I thought was a short
between two wires and was very excited, and maybe it was that I
disconnecting both of them, but the battery still went dead. I
finally figured out that the wires weren't "shorted" but they had a
shunt between them which was connectded to the ammeter, in parallel.
The shunt had low resistance that my 110v lightbulb didn't show. This
may be when I decided I had to have a wiring diagram or I'd never fix
it.

There were no quick connectors then and not very many fuses, so I had
to unscrew wires, and I'd keep disconnnecting things until the test
light showed no continuity. After 4 or 5 disconnects, I got that, and
I figuered the last thing I had disconnected was the problem, but I'd
reconnect it and there would still be no short, and I'd reconnect the
previous thing, and the previous thing and I'd be at the top when
there was a short again. So I'd start disconnecting, probably in a
different order, and still it would take 4 or 5 disconnects to get rid
of the short, and back up again, to the top, and down and back up.

Finally I found the problem. I guess at every critical point, I had
opened the


***(My recollection is that I wanted to make a copy and bring it right
back, although now I can't imagine how I intended to make a copy in
1964. Maybe I was just going to draw a copy.