Hi,
I bought a Phantom 3 Pro 3 days ago and took it to the countryside to shoot some videos. I was in a shallow valley, surrounded by some hills few kilometers away. I was surprised with weak transmission signal alerts being ca. 400-500m away. I thought that maybe surrounding buildings or being in a valley caused this so I tried to go up as far as I could go. Being 400m high, having drone directly above me with clear line of sight I started getting alerts and video cut-outs again... After installing dji pilot app all I did was to disable beginner mode, everything else was untouched, straight out of the box. Did I miss some settings or is my unit broken or what?

How did you have the antennas positioned on your remote controller? With the Phantom directly overhead, the antennas should have been completely horizontal for the best signal. Check the user manual on page 27 for examples. I've only taken mine out to 700m so far (with the antennas vertical), but I found I had to be attentive with keeping the Phantom in the antennas' sweet spot.

There is definitely a sweet spot. You need to keep the antennas "looking" at each other. If anything gets in the way the signal degrades rapidly. 1500 meters out at 200 meters or so is no problem with these units.  Fold the antennas up towards your tablet when you fly out any distance. If it is straight over you, point them out. That should help greatly.

I'm at work so can't take a photo of my RC but I made this little drawing to show how I position my antennas during flights:


Is this a bad setup? Could it be a reason for so short transmission range(400-500m)? Also, can I check some more info about transmission quality in pilot app? Or set channel manually? or set it to different frequency? I'm so bummed when I see all those videos of people flying 2km and more and still having real time video feed.. I almost feel like there is something wrong with my Phantom

Captain Pusheen Posted at 2015-7-13 19:40
I'm at work so can't take a photo of my RC but I made this little drawing to show how I position my  ...

As long as you're not pretty much right overhead, that looks okay.

The major key with the antennas - DO NOT POINT THEM AT YOUR Phantom!
The best signal is "broadside" to the antennas.
The weakest signal strength is directly off the end of each antenna, so, if you're pointing
your antennas directly at your Phantom, the strongest effect of the signal is not getting there.
Almost forgot one more, perhaps important, point. If you're intent on looking at your screen and your Phantom gets behind you, your mobile device can actually start blocking/shielding your antenna. Imagine that you're facing north and your Phantom is now behind you, south of where you're standing - let's say at about a 45-degree angle. The signal is now trying to go through your tablet/phone to your Phantom. You need to re-orient yourself so the antennas have a "clear shot" to your Phantom - again, without pointing the antennas directly at it.

And, at the frequencies you're dealing with, if much of anything gets in the way, there's a good liklihood you'll lose signal contact with your Phantom. In the winter time, when many trees are bare of leaves, signals might be slightly attenuated (weakened) but still usable. During the warmer months, when leaves are abundant, they become very effective signal blockers - particularly as frequencies get higher and higher. And the frequencies your Phantom is using are *very* high. Signals to and from the Phantom are in the GHz range - they are short, they are not very strong and they are absolutely line of sight. Unlike your FM radio frequencies they won't work in tunnels and blocked areas.