wifi indicator changes and connection slows

I am having an odd connectivity issue and can not find an answer already on the forums. My wifi appears to be always connected and the wifi diagnostics does not indicate that it disconnects.

However, my data downloads/web page loads, etc. seem to be delayed in association to what the airport icon says in the menu bar. If you click on the icon you get:

wifi: looking for networks

alternating every 3 or so seconds with

wifi: on

when I click a new website, if the icon is stating looking for networks, there will be a 3 second or so delay, until, as I can observe, the icon switches back to wifi: on at which time the page rapidly loads. This amounts to frequent 3 second delays while surfing although occasionally it does this for up to ten seconds of delay. I just upgraded router last week from verizon and it appears to be doing this on all devices, macbook pro, retina iMac, iPad.

Any thoughts? Its not normal for it to switch from a constant "on" to this search