For closer range, ELRS is robust enough it seems any kind of antenna placement is fine as long as it is not pressed against the carbon frame. However going out further, maybe medium range around 1km, then it seems the dipole null points do have an effect.
On most of my builds I have the dipole oriented horizontally, so the antenna null points are pointing left and right of the drone. When far out and turning around, I often see the LQ drop as the null point faces the home point, but usually not enough to result in a RX LOSS. Checking my DVR, I see that the screen actually momentarily flashed RX LOSS in such a situation, and dynamic power on the transmitter went from 25mw to 1watt, but there was no control loss. I flew a second build where the antenna was oriented vertically (and turned the radio antenna to match), not quite as far out but pretty close, and noticed LQ barely dropped when turning and the transmitter remained at 25mw throughout the 12 minute flight.
So if you plan to fly out further (mid range) and don't want to install a diversity receiver, is a vertical orientation better? With the null points pointing up and down, unless you are right above you, or doing a flip/loop at distance, there will be very little chance of pointing the null point back home.
On most of my builds I have the dipole oriented horizontally, so the antenna null points are pointing left and right of the drone. When far out and turning around, I often see the LQ drop as the null point faces the home point, but usually not enough to result in a RX LOSS. Checking my DVR, I see that the screen actually momentarily flashed RX LOSS in such a situation, and dynamic power on the transmitter went from 25mw to 1watt, but there was no control loss. I flew a second build where the antenna was oriented vertically (and turned the radio antenna to match), not quite as far out but pretty close, and noticed LQ barely dropped when turning and the transmitter remained at 25mw throughout the 12 minute flight.
So if you plan to fly out further (mid range) and don't want to install a diversity receiver, is a vertical orientation better? With the null points pointing up and down, unless you are right above you, or doing a flip/loop at distance, there will be very little chance of pointing the null point back home.