You're totally welcome, and there is usually no reason to suspect the cable. It's the simplest most robust thing about the entire system! Suspecting the cable first is sort of like having an acceleration problem with a car and first inspecting the gas pedal.

I've been there, but in my case the defective wire was installed with an F81 junction 18" above the ground and directly in the path of a sprinkler. When I disassembled it, there was no center conductor left. You just don't think of the cable as a problem.