My end goal is to be able to communicate via the wireless transceiver board to another UNO 150ft away.
Just about any radio module is up to that task, even the $1 cheapos on eBay.
Why go to all the trouble to use a radio so rarely interfaced to Arduino? I've been using VirtualWire with the cheapos in sensor networks for years, at 300 meters line of sight range, with no trouble at all.
That said, googling "cc-1101 arduino" turns up at least two other libraries, and a couple of tutorials.