DTV signal strength

I tried moving the antenna outside via a long connecting cable through the doorway (as a test), but that did not improve the signal strength noticeably. I tried connecting to various wires instead of the antenna, using one of those connectors that converts between coax and 2 wire leads... interestingly, using just that connector and an alligator clip jumper wire on one lead resulted in about as good reception as the antenna.

In the end, I determined that just slightly repositioning the antenna and its parts makes the most difference. But it is quite sensitive (euphemism for "frustrating", heheh) - just moving one part slightly sometimes results in a 20% drop in signal, and then even when you move the part back to its original position, it refuses to go back up to the original signal strength unless you keep fiddling around with it for several minutes again.