okay so this has been bugging me for a while and i never see a clear answer on it. i know the theory ? 5.8 gives you more bandwidth and less congestion in a lot of places but shorter range and worse obstacle penetration, 2.4 goes further and punches through trees better. but in actual real world flying do people actually use 5.8 or does everyone just set it to auto and forget it.

i ask because i was at a spot last weekend that was absolutely loaded with 2.4 interference, could see it on the signal bars going nuts, and i switched to 5.8 manually and it was genuinely rock solid the whole time. like noticeably better. but then i was reading some thread somewhere where people were saying 5.8 on ocusync or whatever dji calls it now is kind of pointless past like 500m. im in the UK so my power limits are lower anyway which probably changes things.

just curious what peoples actual experience is rather than the spec sheet stuff

yeah your experience matches mine honestly. in urban or suburban spots 5.8 can be way cleaner because all the wifi routers and IoT garbage and microwaves are all fighting over 2.4. i pretty much always manually select 5.8 when im flying anywhere near houses or commercial buildings and save 2.4 for open rural stuff or when i need range. the auto mode on most systems is decent but it doesnt always switch fast enough when conditions change, ive had it sitting on a bad 2.4 channel for way too long before it decides to hop.

the range thing is real though, if youre pushing distance 2.4 is just going to serve you better, physics is physics. but for most normal flying within a few hundred meters in a congested RF environment 5.8 all day.

UK here too and yeah the OFCOM power limits def make range worse across both bands compared to what americans are flying with. ive basically just accepted that and fly closer in. never had a real issue on auto mode tbh but i mostly fly countryside so maybe i just dont hit the interference situations you're describing as often