[TowerTalk] Fixing my 40m beam...

[Douglas Ruz / CO8DM]

Hi,

I am fixing my 40m wire beam. It is a 2 shortened elements added to my HD spiderbeam.

About 3 months ago my 40m driven element was hitted (or almost) by a lightning. 

The result:

The wire of one arm was cutted on both sides of the loading coil...The coil is in the middle of the arm.
Few days ago helped by an Skyhook (Crane) I installed the loading coil again.

Checking the SWR with my MFJ-259 I see the SWR is 3:1 or more on any HF frequency...Probably the Coax cable is broken in some place...I check the coax from the shack to the top of the tower. I can see on top of the tower the coax without about 1 inch of the external black jacket (It is RG223 coax cable)...The braid is not broken but it is black in that place (like cables after a shortcircuit)...or arching because the HV...

My question is: 

Is the center conductor of the coax broken in that place???

any idea?

Thanks,

Doug, CO8DM