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[Reply #15 on:]

Actually it seems that the X-10 protocol might be a good option.  They seem to have what I need too.

http://www.x10europe.com/pdf/AM12E.pdf

[Reply #16 on:]

I got some cheap 433MHz radios like that. They were ASK radios. RX/TX pair. I found the automatic gain control (AGC) on the RX would respond rather quickly--so if the signal from the TX stayed in one place for long, the AGC would saturate and I'd get a lot of noise. I did some testing between garage and basement and ran into more noise than I expected. I'm sure there are ways around it.

But I threw in the towel and got a pair of JeeNodes from Modern Devices. They are RFM12-B based and and I'm quite pleased. They are Arduino compatible and have decent library support written by the creator.
You can set a radio id and group id so you can have more than a pair going. They are transceivers too so you can do bidirectional. The Arduino library comes with tons of examples. I wished the getting started documentation was a little simpler (I am writing one as a blog post soon) but it's entirely possible to figure it out in a few hours.

I don't usually spend lots on hobby parts as I can make them cheaper but here there's a lot of heavy lifting already taken care of so this is one of those rare occasions where I succumb to the great value rather than seeking dirt cheap.

Hope this helps.

[Reply #17 on:]

All of the remote power points Ive purchased all use 433.92 Mhz ASK and the channels are simply
selected based on the data stream.
The easiest way to reverse the protocol is to pull an encoder apart , and connect a CRO to the data input pin
of the Transmitter, and then simply capture the data stream.

[Reply #18 on:]

But I threw in the towel and got a pair of JeeNodes from Modern Devices. They are RFM12-B based and and I'm quite pleased. They are Arduino compatible and have decent library support written by the creator.
You can set a radio id and group id so you can have more than a pair going. They are transceivers too so you can do bidirectional. The Arduino library comes with tons of examples. I wished the getting started documentation was a little simpler (I am writing one as a blog post soon) but it's entirely possible to figure it out in a few hours.

I've been playing with the JeeNodes this past week, but have a totally different experience
so far. I find the libraries and examples to be poorly commented, plus the RF12demo sketch
pumps characters to the screen endlessly, whether or not the other node is powered up,
and the rf12serial sketch loses almost all of the transmitted characters. The first sketch is
long and complex, and I haven't had time to debug it, and the 2nd sketch is so simple there
is nothing to debug. It's just not reliable. So, still scratching.