I have recently started flying my phantom 3 standard after years of no flight. I have noticed that I can not get it to go super far without major connection issues.
Today I took it out over the mississippi river. I was on the bank right next to the river and got it to about 1200ft away where it started to have connection issues. height of between 150-250ft. A few days ago when I was flying it around in a different location I thought the trees were messing with the connection but now I am worried something is wrong with the drone. I have watched the DJI video and follow practices like the correct way to point the antenna on the remote perp. to the drone and all that jazz. I do not have the max flight distance slider enabled. Any tips or help is appreciated.

Hi there. As electronic products are affected by technological developments and changes in usage requirements, each generation of products has a fixed life cycle. In order to continuously provide you with premium product and service experiences, DJI regularly optimizes resource allocations to promote the development and application of new products and technologies. Therefore, we have decided to stop providing support services for the Phantom 3 Series and its accessories starting on January 5, 2023. We're sorry that the services for this product have been suspended currently and relevant technical support and after-sales repair services cannot be provided. Thank you for your understanding.

I would test it again with clear LOS (no trees blocking) while standing on an elevated area away from water.  Or test again from the exact place you've had good distance in the past.  Aim controller carefully.  Report back.  Good luck.  

Mark The Droner Posted at 2-15 03:27
I would test it again with clear LOS (no trees blocking) while standing on an elevated area away from water.  Or test again from the exact place you've had good distance in the past.  Aim controller carefully.  Report back.  Good luck.

Does water negativly impact connection? I figured it was wide open so I had clear LOS and it would be fine.

epicsmokey Posted at 2-15 14:17
Does water negativly impact connection? I figured it was wide open so I had clear LOS and it would be fine.

If you're standing next to water, it can be a negative or positive effect, depending on how low you're flying, because some of the signal will bounce off the water.  So you have your primary signal with clear LOS which is wonderful, and then also the bounced signal, which is going to be slightly delayed.  If the two signals arrive at the receiving antenna out-of-phase, it will result in destructive interference, and mess up your overall connection.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone