First Pucker Flight - Any Signal Optimization Tips ?

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Flying off-shore today had a bit of a pucker experience. Using a P3P with a Itelite DBS02 mod.

At a little over 5800 ft distance – lost signal.

My usual experience (admittedly rookie) is that the image transmission signal gets weak first – I go up in altitude a bit, get signal back – and use that as the edge of my flight envelope. No problems. I usually keep it within about 3/4 mile – but to get the shots I wanted today I had to push the envelope a bit.

Today lost image and RC signal together – message flashed up that the quad was RTH. OK.
Around 5200 ft out image popped back on so I killed the RTH – pulled back to within 5000 feet and started taking pictures. Then lost image and RC together again. No RTH message . Time passed – and then some more. No sign of the drone - my spotter was asleep at the wheel – I’m puckering up pretty good. Was in auto mode for channel number – switched to custom and set a strong channel – image and RC control snapped on instantly.

So –looking for insight on optimizing signal strength Does setting a custom channel or using the auto mode gives best results with the Itelite antenna? I had thought the auto mode would automatically be finding the strongest channel -didn’t seem to be the case. The 32 channel hack might help but have also seen posts by credible folks that the Itelite is not compatible with the extra channels. Have looked thru the threads and get conflicting info.

Apologize for the long message.
 
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Were you yawing much while taking photos? And was there much wind?

If so, I've got an explanation.
 
When you think you have lost signal and nothing is happening, look at your control and see if the green light is on. If it is you have signal (control) If it is red RTH should activate within 3 seconds.

My choice is auto channel.

Like you say. Up usually helps if you start to lose signal. Back works pretty good too.

If you are out over water and nothing in the way. 5800ft seems short. Unless maybe your too low.
Maybe interference somewhere?
I have flown 14,000ft over water to an island with only windsurfers and had zero signal loss.
 
I'd be puckering too. The only thing I can say is early on when working to solve my disconnects, I switched to custom channel 20 and have never changed that in almost a year flying. I also keep my fpv bit rate at lowest. I haven't had problems since doing that but I only fly 3k or so out. I don't push the limits. I also did the 32 channel hack recently and I still keep it custom channel rather than auto. Theoretically auto should be best but I opt to stick with one clean channel.
 

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