Guys, the RF propagation follows some complex rules and that depend on modulation type, encapsulation and protocol used. Adding more, there are RFI (RF Interference) between appliance, chips, boards. Adding more there are other signals more or less powerful, harmonics and so on.
Speaking in term of DJI Phantom 3, when signal drops, you face the following situation, in order of frequency:
1. RF Signal is OK, but not enough information can be decoded from the packets to/from bird. This affect mainly video packet that needs big chunks, preamble, sequencing and checksum. When more than 2-3 packets get scrambled by the receiver the RC loose for an "amount" of time the sync with your aircraft until new key frame packet is regained by the receiver.
2. RFI: some not good quality china-cable microUSB or Lightning, specially if long, can become an antenna itself. If this happen .. ciao ciao decoding. Use RFI inductors on the RC USB side of the cable, making one turn of cable.
3. The bird and RC really get uncapable of syncronize. In this case you are in a "no fly" area due to very high density of other signals. This argument, if interested can be seen a deeper but it's complex.
4. No signal at all or intermittent RF signal between bird and RC. In this case can be fault antenna, PA (power amplifier) not working at correct power, signal destroyed for some reason. For example, never keep hand on the antenna, specially on the metal base ring.
A note on RC/Bird bind: each packet sent by radio RF has a specific structure, which contains many informations, and one of this is a serial identifier for the RC/Bird packet exchange. Well, if for some reason something change this "numbers" in one of the two sides, they can't talk anymore. This can happen (very low probability), but if it happens ALL the packet will be discarded. I don't believe that rebind solve the problem, unless really big mess is happened.