Rob,
I will be following your story with great interest. I have a similar project underway. I've purchased two XRF transceivers for breadboard testing. Not fired up yet ... still waiting for 3.3 V regulators from Digikey. My ultimate plan is a long range, one-way link with an ARF on the sending end a SRF receiver ... very much like your project.

Yes, saw your thread on the Ciseco forum. It does sound like your parts are defective .. Will be interested in how it resolves. BTW, I was not able to join the forum ... verification not working.
Regards,
Dick