It's an MRF-260 not 260i. I did some further tests when I got home. I have a MRF-350 in my family room on ID#3. My MX-980 and the MX-350 only work about 20 ft direct line of sight to the deck just behind the sliding glass doors. Placing the MRF-260 to ID to 0 I got no flickering of the status light. The range was similar to the above when the mx350 and MRF-260 were set to ID#4. I tried 3 other locations 2 in my basement and one upstairs in my bedroom. It works in the unfinished part of the basement at a location ~26ft from the deck (were I can run cat 6 cable to my bedroom to extend the emitter and 5 ft from the deck below it.

Is this limited range typical of these RF devices?
Is cat 6 best to use to splice into the emitter and extend it's length or Cat 5e (solid or stranded).

Thanks for the help