Can you give some more instructions on how to configure these?

I have a signal of iron plates going into an emitter combinator on red circuit. The first signal on the emitter combinator is set to "Signal 1", but I have no output signal on the emitter.

I also have a receiver setup also with "signal 1, and a red wire connecting the emitter/receiver. There is no signal on the middle power pole, and no signal on the receiver.

The emitter acts as a filter and will only send signals you set. Try setting slot two in the emitter to iron plates.

Ok I've tried that and got a little bit further, but something is still off. My setup is as follows:

Chest <red wire> power pole <red wire> emitter <green wire> power pole <green wire> receiver <red wire> power pole

I've set the first slot on the left of the emitter and receiver to signal 1. The second slot on the emitter is set to iron plates. When iron plates are inserted into the chest, the output signal on both emitter and receiver is showing iron plates and is incrementing each tick. It seems like these need an input and output side like the combinators have so you avoid a feedback loop.

Also the signal 1 does not appear to be the one carrying the iron plate quantity over the middle power pole, only the plate signal is being transmitted.

I think you're over-complicating it, try connecting the chest directly to the emitter, set emitter slot 1 to Signal 0 and Slot 2 to Iron plates, then place a receiver anywhere on map set receiver slot 1 to Signal 0, the emitter and receiver should not be directly connected with wires. If you still need help, I'll be more than happy to make a blueprint for you