Ok, with no emitter the voltage across the sensor (to GRD) is ~5V. With the emitter it's ~4.1V. Maybe time to try a new sensor.
I just changed sensors and no change in results. Thought maybe I had a bad resistor, checked and it was 9.8K ohm. Don't know why the sensor resistance is not dropping to a proper level with emitter detection. I'll try a different emitter (although it's seems to be working).
I just changed emitters, verified the new one was working and tested for voltage drop. Again, with emitter ON, voltage from point A to GRD was ~4V, indicating (to me)insufficient resistance drop in sensor with detection.