ok so ive been running a stock dipole on my vtx for like 6 months and everyone keeps telling me i need to get a cloverleaf or pagoda or whatever and go circular polarized. i get the basic concept, same polarization on both ends or you lose like 3db or something. but honestly when i go out and fly i cant really tell if my video is worse than my buddys setup who has a full circular setup on both ends.

like is this one of those things that matters a lot in theory but in practice at 200mw on a 5inch in an open field it kind of doesnt matter? or am i actually losing range and just dont know it because ive never had a proper setup to compare to. also if i do get a circular antenna for the vtx do i need to match it on the goggles side too or can i run one circular and one linear

running rushfpv tank vtx btw and dji o3 is not an option right now, purely analog setup

mixing polarizations will cost you roughly 3db which in real terms means noticeably shorter usable range before you start getting breakup. in open field flying at low power it might not bite you that bad but fly near anything that causes multipath reflections, like buildings or trees, and circular polarization starts earning its keep because it handles reflected signals way better than linear does. the reflected signal flips polarization so your circular antenna kinda naturally rejects it instead of adding it to the mess.

and yeah you really want to match both ends. running a cloverleaf on the vtx and a stock dipole on your goggles is better than two dipoles but youre still leaving performance on the table. pagoda on the vtx and a skew planar or cloverleaf on the goggles is a pretty classic cheap setup and works well. lhcp vs rhcp just needs to be the same on both ends, doesnt really matter which you pick as long as theyre matched.

honestly i flew linear dipoles for way longer than i should have and only noticed the difference when i finally put a pagoda on the quad and a cloverleaf on my goggles. the multipath thing is real, i fly around a parking structure sometimes and before the swap it was unwatchable past like 150m, after it was fine. so yeah it does matter, just maybe not in wide open nothing-around-you fields as much