Making the general receiver code sounds like a great idea! Hopefully it works out.
I am not using a transistor - how could that help the range?
For the other code, I wired up the three connections necessary to an uno (r3) with a bunch of other connections I used for another project. I’ll try to run that code on it, but I’ll have to disconnect everything else and wire up the LED- I hope to get to it today or tomorrow.