so this has been bugging me for a while and i feel like im going in circles trying to figure it out. running a 600mw vtx on a 5inch freestyle build, omnidirectional RHCP antenna on the quad, aomway receiver with two antennas on the goggle side. setup worked great for months then i rebuilt the frame after a bad crash and now my range is noticeably worse.

i dont think i damaged the vtx itself because the video looks clean when im close, and i resoldered the antenna connector which looked fine. but past maybe 150-200 meters i start getting a lot of breakup where before i could comfortably fly twice that distance in the same spots.

my gut says its an antenna orientation problem since i mounted everything slightly differently in the rebuild but i honestly cant tell if thats actually the issue or if somethings wrong with the vtx output. is there a way to test this without expensive gear or do i just start swapping antennas and hope for the best

first thing id check is whether the antenna is actually making solid contact at the u.FL or SMA connection, even a slightly loose fit can tank your range massively without any obvious visual damage. ive been burned by this twice, everything looks fine, connector looks seated, but theres just enough play that youre losing signal before it even hits the antenna element. try gently wiggling the antenna while watching the signal on your goggles from a short distance and see if it fluctuates.

also what angle is the antenna at now vs before? if the tip of the omnidirectional is pointing toward where you normally fly youre basically flying into the null of the antenna pattern which is the worst possible orientation. the null on most omnis is off the tips, you want the sides of the antenna facing your flight path not the ends

could also just be the vtx got heat stressed during the crash even if it wasnt direct impact damage, ive seen vtxs that looked totally fine but were putting out maybe a third of their rated power after a bad hit. if you have a friend with a spectrum analyzer thats the definitive way to check output but i know most people dont have access to one. alternatively just swap in a known good vtx temporarily and see if the range comes back, thats usually how i debug this stuff, swap one thing at a time until it works again rather than trying to diagnose it electrically