Problem receiving int over radio signal

Question

EDIT:

I figured out the problem. Apparently the pwn generator on pin 9 is broken, as my code works when I changed it to pin 3. Thank you for the people who still tried to help me, despite the problem not being related to code :)

Original text:

I'm having problems with a transmitter & receiver setup. Right now I have an Arduino Nano with a joystick controller with the X-coordinate connected to pin A0 on the Nano. The radio is connected to pin 12 (default pin for radiohead library). This setup works for the transmitter side, as it surpasses the "waitPacketSent" command and I've seen the receiver get the value sometimes.

The problem is the receiver side. Sometimes it can receive values if the joystick is pointed all the way up (>1000), but if it receives a value below 1000, it just completly stops and won't work. The radio receiver is set on pin A0. I did also try making aluminum foil antennas to see if that was an issue, but it changed nothing.

Transmitter on Arduino Nano:

#include <RH_ASK.h>
#include <SPI.h>

int joyxpin = A0;
int vcc_joy = 11;

RH_ASK rf_driver;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:

  rf_driver.init();

  // Set pinmodes
  pinMode(joyxpin, INPUT); // Set the joysticks X-coordinate to pin A0
  pinMode(vcc_joy, OUTPUT); // Set 12 as output
  

  // Set states
  digitalWrite(vcc_joy, HIGH); // Set 12 to 5V

  Serial.begin(9600);
}

int getXCoord(){
  int xj = analogRead(A0);
  
  if(xj > 485 && xj < 522){
    xj = 512;
  }

  return xj;
}

void loop() {
  int joyx = getXCoord();
  char msg[6]; // Buffer to hold the string representation of the value

  // Convert integer to string
  itoa(joyx, msg, 10);

  // Print the value being sent for debugging
  Serial.print("Sending: ");
  Serial.println(msg);

  // Send the message
  rf_driver.send((uint8_t *)msg, strlen(msg));
  rf_driver.waitPacketSent();
  delay(100);
}

Receiver on Arduino Uno:

#include <RH_ASK.h>
#include <SPI.h> // Not actually used but needed to compile

RH_ASK rf_driver(2000, A0, 12); // Initialize with speed, rxPin (A0), and txPin (12)


// Define pin number for the MOSFET gate
const int MOSFET_GATE_PIN = 9;
int joyrec = 0; // Variable to store received joystick value



void setup() {
  rf_driver.init();
  Serial.begin(9600);

  // Set the MOSFET gate pin as an output
  pinMode(MOSFET_GATE_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {

  uint8_t buf[RH_ASK_MAX_MESSAGE_LEN]; // Buffer to hold the received string
  uint8_t buflen = sizeof(buf);

  

  if (rf_driver.recv((uint8_t *)buf, &buflen)) {  // If a message is received
    buf[buflen] = '\0';  // Null-terminate the received string

    rf_driver.printBuffer("Received:", buf, buflen);

    int value = buf[0];
    Serial.println(value);

    // Convert received message (string) to integer
    int joyrec = atoi((char *)buf);


    int pwm_motor = map(joyrec, 0, 1023, 0, 255);

    // Move the motor based on the received value
    analogWrite(MOSFET_GATE_PIN, pwm_motor); // Set speed to the received value
  }


  delay(1);
}