ok so i just built my first 5inch freestyle quad and im trying to figure out the antenna situation for the video transmitter. the build guide i followed just said to use whatever comes with the vtx which is this tiny little stubby dipole thing. but then i went down a rabbit hole on youtube and now ive seen people talking about pagoda antennas, cloverleafs, lollipops, linear vs circular polarized, RHCP vs LHCP and honestly i have no idea where to start or if any of it even matters at a beginner level.

im running a rushFPV tank solo vtx at 400mw and just flying in a local field, not doing any long range stuff. do i actually need to care about any of this or is the stock antenna genuinely fine for just getting started. also if i do upgrade what should i even match on the goggle side, i have HDO2s

for just bashing around a local field at 400mw the stock antenna will genuinely be fine, dont overthink it right now. the bigger gains early on come from just flying more and crashing less lol. that said when you do eventually want to upgrade, circular polarized (the cloverleaf or lollipop style) is the way to go over linear because you get way less multipath interference which shows up as that horrible static you see when you fly behind something. just make sure your vtx and goggles are both the same polarization, RHCP or LHCP doesnt actually matter as long as theyre matching

honestly the stubby that comes with most vtx units is pretty garbage in my experience, not just physically fragile but the radiation pattern is all over the place. a $6 lollipop from ReadyMadeRC will be a noticeable improvement even at your range. HDO2s take SMA so just make sure whatever you get is the right connector. pagoda antennas are interesting in theory but ive never found them to be meaningfully better than a good lollipop for normal freestyle distances, the people who swear by them are usually doing long range LOS stuff where the omni pattern actually matters more