A elderly friend gifted me his restored heathkit lm-13 vtvm it needs a probe but my obvious question is can i use it like a regular volt/ohm meter or no?
You might want to check the battery, it's for the ohms measurement only. The probe for dc volts probably uses a 1 meg series resistor in it. To answer your question Yes. And it would be a Vacuum Tube Volt Ohm Meter vtvom.