A method and apparatus for providing a universal transmitter that can detect and emulate a transmission signal of a transmitter, the transmission signal having a corresponding transmission frequency and a corresponding modulation pattern. The universal transmitter comprises: a detection circuit that detects a frequency and a modulation pattern of a transmitted signal of a separate transmitter and a memory. A processor coupled to the detection circuit and the memory, stores a frequency value representative of the detected frequency and a plurality of value representative of the detected modulation pattern, in the memory. A transmitting circuit coupled to the processor, is operable to transmit an output signal having the frequency and the modulation pattern of the transmission signal.