Team Blacksheep Triumph Antenna Review

Posted on February 14, 2016 • 5 min read • 968 words

Technical Specs  

Here’s the specs taken straight from the website:

• Frequency: 5500-6000Mhz
• Gain: 1.26dbic
• Axial Ratio: 0.74
• Cable: RG402 (heavy duty)
• Weight: 11.5g
• Height: 85mm / 3.3in
• Cost: $39.95

So what does that all mean? Well, that’s a very good question. Taken from FPVLab is a brilliant post by IBCrazy himself with a good comparison with the rest of the VAS lineup, and I’ve turned this data into a couple of simple graphs.

So from the graphs above we can see that the Triumph falls into second play in pretty much most of the stats. The antenna has been designed as an excellent all-rounder. It doesn’t win any categories, but in my eyes that is not a bad thing - there’s a lot of trade-offs with antennas, most of which is outside of my knowledge (with gain and axial ratio), but the size and durability are easy ones to comprehend and we can see here that it is both small and durable - both very important points.

As for the cost, that is a very very good price for a good quality set of antennas whose stats perform so highly. Anyone in the hobby will know that VAS make fantastic performing antennas, but on some designs they can set you back a good amount of money. But I’ve always been a believer in you get what you pay for, so we shall see how these stand up to my VAS counterparts.

The Design  

So this antenna differs from your usual Circular Polarized, in the fact that it is based off of the Lindenblad antenna. You can have a search on google for the design (I don’t want to hotlink any images due to copyright etc), but essentially it seems to have 4 poles coming out from the base in a cross (+) shape that then have Dipoles on the ends at roughly 35-45 degree angles. This is quite unique for our mini quad antennas because there’s no bent wire involved in the production of them.

What’s in the box?  

If you are like me you’d see that picture and think “hold on have they sent me the right box? - is this the right packaging?”. Before I’d even opened it I got my other antennas I have lay around just to compare the size difference, they are definitely small which is really great as we tend to try and squeeze every ounce of weight out of our quads as we can.

Inside the box we have the pair of Triumph antennas and 2 RP-SMA -> SMA adapters as they currently only have RP-SMA available right now. SMA are due soon I believe.

Size Comparisons  

We can see that graph being put into action here, the size comparison with the Duraspec is certainly large. It’s worth noting here that the DuraSpec is also over twice the weight at around 25g vs the 11.5g of the Triumph.

Now I use this Mad Mushroom as a receiver antenna on my Diversity setup, and have de-cased it just for portability, but we can see here even never to an antenna of this type it’s still smaller!

On the Quad  

I will be glad when I can pick up a set of SMA antennas - having the extra adapter has made the build slightly tricky and I’ve had to space the camera forwards a little due to the connector being so high up I can’t bend the coax because it’s right where the connector is. This is not a major issue and has easily been remedied, but I will be definitely switching them out with an SMA set for the Shrike.

Flight Comparison  

I put together a little video comparing 3 sets of antennas:

• TBS Triumph on Receiver and Transmitter
• VAS Mad Mush on Receiver, VAS DuraSpec on Transmitter
• Fatshark Spironet V1’s on Receiver and Transmitter

All antennas are RHCP and so this should give a good comparison. I apologize in advance, trying to fly the same route at the same speed three times in a row is actually harder than it looks. I think I pretty much nailed it in the first location of the video, but the second location was a bit hit and miss.

edit: Some more antenna testing, this time with VAS Airscrew

Conclusion  

I’ve only got to fly them on the flights you see in the video - but I can say for sure there is a definite noticeable improvement in my flying areas. In both locations they make a visible difference even without a Diversity setup, so once I put my Crosshair back on this is going to be one epic setup that won’t need any adjustments for a long time. I must admit I am a little surprised about my VAS antennas being beaten by Fatsharks, considering the state of my Fatsharks, but the TBS Triumphs are my main focus, and now my main antenna.

As said earlier, there’s a small annoyance that the only available version right now is RP-SMA, but I am told an SMA version is incoming very soon so I really do not see any downsides. What’s also great is the pricing. At the time of writing this article they’re at $40 for a pair - and that really cannot be beaten considering the performance. A very worthy addition to my kit, and will be used permanently in the future!

Thank you to IBCrazy and Trappy for keeping on with the development of the antenna, I know there was a video that surfaced a couple of years ago testing it. It’s a cracker.