First I would plig them into the same breadboard, about 15 20 Cm Apart supply 5V and ground to the appropriate pins on tx and rx modules and put a pull up (4K7 should work fine) on the receiver and a pull down on the transmitter data output. Then I would then put some kind of indicator on the rx output module a DMM should work... There isn't enough current available to light an LED... and monitor the rx output pin while pulling up the TX data line... use a 470R resistor to pull the TX data line up to +5V. If it fails there are three possibilities 1. They aren't tx/rx modules (That would be no surprise from Sparkfun...) 2. the TX and RX modules aren't on the same frequency (there are 3 or 4 separate frequencies around 433 Mhz) again Sparkfun... or 3 the modules aren't any good. However for 3 TX's and 2 RX's to all fail completely in the same manner kinda beggars the imagination. My thinking so far is that ??hopefully? they are on the same frequency and that the receiver has an Open Drain/collector type of output and it isn't really hooked up properly. I've used hundreds of those modules for remote data collection, device controller/programmer applications and all but a small handful worked out of the box, the failed ones were all due to poor assembly and lack of inspection prior to sale. I later ?advanced to making my own devices and If I Never see another MPSH10 It will be too soon. I had an assembly line at my place of employment and all errors made were of the monday morning or "Wrong time of the month" type of errors... All but one batch. I designed the transmitter inductor (Coil) on the PCB and my printed circuit house and I had a great relationship... on one run of boards the PCB guys didn't have any .020 1/4 oz copper laminate (FR4) but he did have a bunch of left over Duriod 5880 Stock and he used it to make my transmitter boards. 5880 material has a very different dielectric constant... like about 2 - 2.5 and the FR4 is about 4.3 - 4.9 my 433 mhz transmitters were in fact working... @ ~550 Mhz... I really came to dislike production electronics...
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