When I say I was cycling the battery by using the transmitter, I simply turn on the transmitter to discharge the battery to about the 9.6V nominal reading on the display and then connect the wall wart charger for a slow recharge with the TX off as normal. There is no external gear attached to the TX. I am simply using the TX itself to discharge the battery to a point and then recharge. The Tx had been on for about 30-45 minutes with the antenna collapsed and had been doing fine until I noticed the collapsed antenna and then proceeded to extend it. That's about when it all went south. The RF module was quite warm by then so who knows.

I got an email today from HiTec and they have it now. We'll see what their techs say and how much it's going to cost.