Mike, you should not have an swr anywhere near that high just through your
cable.  If your meter and connections are good then you've a very definite
problem in that cable.  You should be seeing a 1 to 1 reading or something very
close to that.

Tom


Tom Brennan  KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP
web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html