A novel method for cold-testing a gyrotron resonator to determine its total Q is presented. Probing radiation is coupled into the resonator through its radiation pattern. A sensitive heterodyne receiver is used in the far field to detect the reradiated cavity resonances. Good agreement between measurement and calculated total Q is found for several 140-GHz gyrotron resonators in the TE//0//3//1, TE//0//3//2, TE//2//3//1, and TE//6//1//1 modes.