Okay, guys, after dinner, and reading all of your posts packed full of good
advice, I recaptured a bit of my "Kick Ass" spirit and went down to the man
cave, AKA Ham Shack, and conducted a few tests of my own. The two problems
initially seemed very similar this afternoon, but then, my tests showed me
that they are, in fact, very different. The loop antenna definitely appears
to have a shorted PL259 on one end or the other. Since it is pretty easy to
simply remove the PL259 from the end coming into the shack and replacing it
with a different one, that is what I plan to do. If that doesn't work, I'll
have to bring the other end down which is connected to the ballun on the
loop antenna. That is fairly easy to bring down since I put it up using a
pulley. Once I have the ballun down, I can unscrew the coax from the ballun
and test the PL259 for a short. If it appears to be shorted, it is quite
easy to replace it too. If it isn't shorted, then, I have to be suspicious
of the ballun. From your experience, what should I expect to find if I
connect my Volt/Ohm meter across the SO239 on the ballun?  

Now, the VHF/UHF dual band vertical is a different problem. I tested it and
it does not appear to be shorted. However, the SWR is higher than a kite.
So, that is going to take a different solution, and that one really has me
puzzled. That is the one that is by far the most difficult to get to because
it is on top of the 37 foot mast, and the vertical goes up an additional 17
feet. It was very difficult to get it up, and the idea of taking it down is
a very unpleasant thought!

Thanks for all your suggestions and ideas. It re-charged me enough to go
down and do some further investigating, which really help to further isolate
the problem. With luck, we can simply replace the one PL259 on the end
coming into the shack and it will work like a charmed antenna.

73,
Ron, K8HSY