[Tubejunke]

An analog ohm meter can be used to check a capacitor. Notice I say check, but not test. The procedures have been in electronics training publications for decades, but what you end up with is more of a check as to whether or not the capacitor is shorted; thus it would not really be a test under loaded conditions which would be more ideal, but not everyone has the time or money to hunt vintage test equipment which may need capacitors to operate correctly; one never knows. The ohm meter test really only works for larger value capacitors as you might find in the filter section of a vintage power supply circuit, ie, 40 microfarad, 10 mfd, etc. In short you should see the meter race to full (or near) deflection (zero ohms), and then slowly fall to a very high value of resistance. If the pointer stops anywhere say mid deflection then toss the capacitor. If memory serves me correctly anything under hundreds of thousands of ohms is faulty. Someone here may elaborate on this, or if not I am sure that a Google search might result in a number of related articles. That cheap meter should do OK for now, but that condenser tester sure would be nice. I would love to have one if I could find one in known to be working condition for a reasonable price. I personally don't recommend and ESR meter. The one that I used in college never seemed to do anything more than the capacitance function of most modern digital VOMs.