Sounds like your balun is making it look like a DC, not RF, short.  Your ohmmeter puts out DC which goes up your coax, through your balun winding, and back down the other side of your coax, hence the "round trip" referred to.  What you are reading is the DC resistance of your coax and balun winding.  

However, when it comes to RF, you are talking about impedence (a combination of resistance and reactance)not just DC resistance.  Another way of looking at it is to take a power transformer and put an ohmmeter across the primary winding.  The reading will probably be only a couple of ohms.  However, if you hook this winding across 60 (or 50) Hz AC it won't blow a fuse or trip a breaker, but will work fine.  Don't hook it across a car battery though or you'll get a big POW (GRIN).

I'd say that if your SWR really is 1.2 and you can make good contacts your antenna is in fine shape.

Hope this helps.

73, John WA4BLM  

You mention vhf & j-pole so I assume we're talking 2M FM so here's my .02 worth.  The RG8 would be better, all things considered.  However, in the real world, I think the RG58 would work just as well.  The difference is attenuation between the two cables.  RG58 will have more loss than RG8 but with only a 50 foot run it will not be significant.  If the loss difference is 3dB you will lose 50% of your power (50W to 25W).  While this sounds terrible it is a "rule-of thumb" that an "S unit" is 6dB so we're talking 1/2 an "S unit" lower signal.  If you're hitting nearby repeaters it won't matter.  Check the ARRL Handbook or Antenna Book to get the actual attenuation difference between the cables.  I'd look it up for you but I don't have either one handy.

My opinion:  Use whichever is easier and cheaper.

I can't help you with the mike schematic but I did have the same problem with my IC-229.  Here's what I did to fix it.  After checking the cable and mike plug for shorts (none) I noticed that inside the mike that one of the two wires (PTT & GND)for the PTT circuit went to the PTT switch and the other went through the touchtone circuit board then to the PTT switch.  I clipped the two wires going into the circuit board and spliced them together so that the PTT switch would be hard across the two pins on the mike plug (5 & 6 if I remember right.  I don't have the manual handy).  Everything seems to be OK and on-the-air tests indicate the audio is fine.  The touchtone pad even still works.  As I recall when you key up and start hitting touchtone keys you could release the PTT button and the rig would stay keyed for a second or two after the last touchtone button was pressed.  That circuit is probably what causes the rig to stay keyed continously.  The only problem I've seen is that now you have to hold the PTT button down while pressing the touchtone buttons.  I wonder if this is a common problem with this mike.

Hope this helps.
John WA4BLM

I have to agree with K2ZD.  It sounds exactly like the old Hi-Par collapsable 6m beam.  I have one I bought new some thirty-odd years ago.  Haven't used it in a long time but as I recall it worked quite well for what it was.

John WA4BLM

I have a manual for the Uniden President 2600.  I looked the schematic over an over but cannot find anything labeled PB100.  If you think it will help I can Xerox the schematic and send it via Snail Mail.

John WA4BLM

Since you obviously have a computer I'd suggest a good CW practice/learning program.  There used to be a DOS program called Super Morse that would be probably what you need.  If I remember correctly it would generate practice QSOs as well as random character groups.  I think it also had a learning mode.  I haven't tried the program in several years so don't know if will run under Windows or not.  Maybe try checking out some of the shareware pages such as DOWNLOAD.COM, JUMBO.COM, etc. to see if they have any programs that may be what you need.  If you can't find anything email me back and I'll see if I still have Super Morse archived somewhere.

Good luck.

Not too sure how they are handling it these days but a few years back a friend of mine let his Extra lapse for almost three years.  He was able to retain his license without a retest.  However, he was not able to retain his old call and was issued one from the current pool.  This was before the days of vanity calls so maybe he can keep his old call.