Palm Pro w/IR upgrade has 4 foot range!?

I just purchased a Palm Pro with the 2MB IR upgrade through eBay. I installed the trial version of OmniRemote to test it out before laying out the $20 for the full version.

A couple of things seem to be very flakey and I'm hoping the wonderful folks in this forum can help me solve them.

1) In IR training mode, OR misidentifies the frequency of my Panasonic TV as 37500 versus 39200 (the one that works).

2) After setting correct IR frequency and training buttons, my range (with fresh batteries) is only about four feet!

I followed all the directions in OmniRemote, but from the discussions here, I would have expected better range out of the IR upgrade.

Any constructive suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks