I probably just need to relocate it then.
Review of said antenna...
Idk what to do man. I want to optimize everything but the infrastructure of this place makes it where I have to cut corners and I'm just not satisfied with cutting corners.
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I don’t know about everybody else but finding open wifi channels here is a challenge. I live in a subdivision of single family homes fairly well-spaced and I still have trouble with channel space. As a result I have tried to wire as much as I can to leave spectrum for devices that absolutely have to use wifi. I always assumed that a mesh network or any kind of wifi repeater would just make this situation worse. For those in rural areas or places with plenty of wifi spectrum available I’m sure mesh can be a great solution, but I think it can have issues in densely populated areas with lots of wifi networks competing for spectrum.
Start here:
- Post a rabbitears survey of where you are.
- How long is your cable run from antenna to HDHR? Without the answers to these 2, anyone giving an opinion on antenna/amp is outright guessing. You may not need anything, and may only need to repoint, as you suggest.
- As for mesh wifi vs MOCA - hold off on purchasing anything before you exhaust your moving things around options, like relocating the cable modem / main wifi router. You may save your self time and money, and end up with a better solution overall.
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It's a 50ft coax routed out the back door, up the exterior wall back into the attic. About 15 ft are wrapped up in a service roll. It's pretty rigged up. I have definitely thought of relocating the hdhr to the attic with the antenna.
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Heh - your screenshot cuts out the important stuff 
If you still have the anonymized URL (further up the screen), better to post that
50-100ft (of good cable) is fine, but it dictates the need for a preamp. This one isn't as good as the older model, but it's cheap and good enough for me
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Yeah - your signals are pretty strong - i wouldn't worry about your antenna at all, assuming you can get CBS (on 12 VHF) with it.
As for WiFi and whatnot - a cheap(er) option might be building a wifi mesh with Asus routers - I have one myself, and it's worked pretty well.
Cheapest possible way, if you're technical: get 2 of these when they go on sale for <$50 , then follow these directions
Better/newer, but still cheapish (and much less complicated): 2 of these
Moneybags: 2 of these (if you can even get them)
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I’ve lived in multiple dense housing situations over the last 3 years and like you, had trouble finding less crowded WiFi channels with a run-of-the-mill TPLink router.
After I switched to eero, my speeds instantly improved and I never worried about searching for channels again. I’m now a believer in whatever automatic optimization it does. I’ve also used a single eero pro as a standalone router (no mesh with other eeros) in a small apartment close to a dozen other units and it performed better than the TPLink I spent hours tinkering with. If you have WiFi troubles in the future, I wouldn’t hesitate to try a mesh system.
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So I think what I'm gonna do is have a shorter coax run to the HDHR, not move the antenna any, and rig up a network cable from the 2nd floor to the first floor through windows to see if it solves anything. Then I'll know what the issue is. The cable run or the signal.
Sorry - I've re-read this whole thread, and I'm not sure what your base issue is, actually. Is it just stuttering/etc from certain OTA channels?
Both kinda. The stuff you said and just poor network conditions. Going to try and rebuild things based on mesh / moca then it turned into signal problems. Both issues really. But I'll probably just ghetto fab a network cable.
If it were me, i would focus on the OTA <--> HDHR piece first, as the HDHR config bits will give you good info that isn't subject to WiFi. Baseline that, check your "best" channels , and use those to test WiFi.
Coax should be much more distance-friendly, but again, the small investment in a preamp would be instructive (after baselining).
I also wouldn't be so dismissive of antenna moves, especially if it's in an attic or indoors. With a clustered set of transmitters like yours, you shouldn't be able to screw things up too badly. Even a joist/stud or roofing material in the wrong place could impact signal, so keep in mind you can move non-directionally too (i.e. placement, not direction).
Signal GH is a great app for viewing the HDHR signal levels from iOS directly, if you have an iOS device.
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You may want to loop the cable so you don't get rainwater running down it into your living room.
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Sorry that makes me cringe. Any way to wall fish that or possibly come down from the attic to a closet? I started my career as a cable installer so forgive my scrutiny. I know it works but....
Scrutiny forgiven, my last job was, check this out, a cable installer lmao. I've only worked in a few houses though, these were mainly schools. The main reason I haven't ran anything permanent is that it's a condo, so idk how much I can change, but we own the condo, so who's gonna complain. I've only found one possible way from the attic to the first floor. There is a closet on the 2nd floor with the air handler in it, and going through that floor will put me right by the entertainment center downstairs, but where, could be a couple feet off. I need a way to have someone stand directly above me on the 2nd floor and we somehow know if we are actually standing directly above / below each other before I go getting out the hammer drill. An app? Real equipment? Another reason I haven't done anything permanent yet, is I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I want the easiest possible solution. I had this idea that I was going to somehow get the coax downstairs from the attic, but I don't think that's necessary anymore. I can access the attic from the air handler closet on the 2nd floor, and it shares a wall with the bedroom. I'll go into the bedroom with it.
So. Antenna in the attic. Coax going down through the closet into the adjacent bedroom. Probably 20 ft will be plenty. I'll install a fancy wallplate. In place of the coax going up the outdoor wall will be a temporary network cable that I also route into the bedroom and hook up to a cheap switch. So I've moved the hdhr upstairs to make the coax run shorter, and indoors, and permanent most likely. And rigged up a wired network before I pull the trigger on the MoCa. This way all I've bought is a cheap switch that I'll need anyways and maybe a longer cable.
Generally in a condo you can make changes to the interior that do affect load bearing walls. Check your CC&R's or ask the board.
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I'm all for testing here, but you couldn't just run the cable through a living space temporarily, as a test? I may have run a Cat5e cable through my living room, diagonally, once or twice
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