Didn't read past first post, forgive me if I missed important details but...
Those green receivers SUCK, with a capitol S, U, C and K (and one could add a few more letters to some of those for emphasis...). Get an RXB-12 or RXB-14 on ebay. They're like a buck a pop, and are WAY THE HELL BETTER than those green things. 20-50x the range, and they don't lock into a non-functional state when used at short range like the green trash ones do.
The cheapo green transmitters are fine.
Those springy antennae are terrible too. Absolute trash. I couldn't tell you why, I'm no RF engineer, but they sucked in my tests. Almost worse than no antenna at all. What I do is cut up ethernet or telephone wires with the solid-core wire, cut to the appropriate length (what, 17.3 cm?), strip one end and solder in place.
Got ~1000' range with green cheap transmitter and RXB-12 that way, even with my halfassed non-optimized "AzzyRF" OOK protocol. Probably could have done more if I had a longer line of sight...
And a wiley fox? You should be good... I'd be nervous of any sort of gadgets around a wiley coyote though, that never seems to end well...