Gidday mate,

You can make this work! Say it out loud 10 times OK!

When the TX is not sending data the RX will be picking up noise, the PIC will see this noise as data, so you need to do a few things.

1. Encode the data (which you have already done) and decode at RX.
2. Add a preamble before you send your data strings,

eg send about 10 bytes of data (eg "RFDATAREADY") and on your receiver have it waiting for the text "READY"

Then start sending your data.

I found that it was useful to use an oscilliscope so you could see the data at TX and RX chips, and see the noise when your not transmitting.

Good luck
J