OK, changed all registers to your last post.
Added the changes to the 'send something' portion.
Still no received data.
Lost the IRQ0 pulses on the transmitter.
No IRQ0 or IRQ1 pulses on the receiver - have never had any.
Pulses going into SDI and SCK on transmitter.
No pulses on SDO or SCK on the receiver - no surprise there, if it doesn't trip an IRQ line.

I'll look into how to setup the unit for receive all the time?