[JimJohnson]

can any one suggest how in bright sunlight a Pentax camera and flash can be used off camera?

I apologize for posting without concrete help, but you just hit the biggest problem with using IR remotes of any kind. Our sun puts out an incredible amount of IR, and while IR remotes include some form of encoding, it is often just washed out by the sun. The only solutions I've found to be of any help are to either put the receiver and transmitter in close proximity of each other (sort of violated the concept of 'remote' doesn't it?), or to directly face transmitter to receiver and do your best to shield the receiver from the sun or surfaces that might reflect the sun.