315Mhz wireless problems

I’m using the VirtualWire v1.5 library and I’m having a lot of difficulty getting this to work. I have two Arduino’s and have tried the example code, from 2400 to 110 baud. The spec for the parts says use a 23cm antenna, but I’ve seen many people suggest 30cm- I’ve tried both (straight wire). The rx/tx are only a few meters apart on my kitchen countertops, with no obstructions. Both are running at 5V. So far the best I’ve seen is receiving a few bytes of data every 3-4 seconds, but even that has proven to be very difficult.

My code is here: synfin.net/misc/receive.txt

Suggestions? Thanks!