implement a project based on packet radio
I would say that the best way to approach this is to forget that a radio is involved. Who really cares if what you feed the UART is transmitted on a wire or wireless. The one caveat I can see is that while RS232 is full duplex, the radio is not. What I would do would be to connect my uC by wire to a PC, get the thing going and then add the radio link.

Sometimes breaking things up in pieces make it a lot easier.

Erik