so ive been running the same setup for maybe 6 months now, rushmore tank vtx at 400mw and just the stock stubby antennas that came with it. flying 5inch freestyle mostly, nothing crazy. but every time i push past maybe 200 meters or so the video just turns to garbage - like full static breakup, sometimes recovers sometimes doesnt. osd is still there which is weird to me

my goggles are the box style skyzone sky04x and i know those have diversity but im not sure if im actually getting any benefit from it because both antennas on the goggles are just the stock omnis that came in the box. been flying for a while now and always kind of assumed it was the trees or something but tested it in an open field last weekend and same deal around that distance

someone mentioned i should try a cloverleaf on the vtx side and a patch on the goggles but honestly i dont fully understand the tradeoff there. is this definitely an antenna problem or could the vtx itself be the issue? its been dropped a few times

almost certainly the antennas tbh. stock antennas on vtx and goggles are basically throwaway parts, manufacturers just include them so the box isnt empty. a cloverleaf or lollipop on the vtx makes a noticeable difference on its own, theyre circular polarized and radiate way more evenly compared to the linear stubs. for the goggles if youre doing mostly line of sight freestyle at medium range i'd just swap both stocks for lollipops or tbs triumph style antennas and call it a day, the diversity on skyzone will actually do something useful then

the patch idea is more for when youre doing longer range or racing where you know roughly where the quad is gonna be. omnidirectional on both sides is fine for what youre describing

also yeah dropped vtx is worth checking - if the sma connector got bent even slightly that'll kill your signal way worse than people expect

had basically exact same thing happen to me lol, was blaming multipath and interference for months before someone at my local track told me to just buy a pair of ethix stubby lollipops and try it. went from breaking up at 150m to flying clean at 400+ in the same spot. kinda embarrassing how long i ignored it honestly