| Tanya, gardengal48 is correct, that home pH tests are quite accurate, particularly for pH with the litmus method. I use a Mosser Lee "Soil Master" (tablet/solution) test kit for pH and N,P,K with less than 10% variance from lab tests. Correct about distilled water vs tap water, but I find that a probe has a wider pH variance than litmus (properly done). IMO even a swimming pool pH test kit is better than a probe. But, just knowing what the pH is - is not much help when it comes to determining how much, of what kind of lime to add. She is also correct that multiple applications of compost will tend to neutralize soil pH. But has any elemental sulphur been applied to acidify the soil? That said, Sandy is quite correct, with regard to a lab test needed for determining pH, that will provide a liming requirement based on pH BUFFER, (capacity of soil to resist pH change, sometimes called reserve acidity) which a home pH test cannot provide, since the testing is based on Cation Exchange Capacity - regarding the degree of Hydrogen (+) and Aluminum (+++) ions available in the soil. The buffering test is simply an exact 8.0 pH solution that a lab adds to the soil sample incrementally, to determine how much lime is needed, to bring the soil up to 6.5 pH. It can be done at home, but most folks cannot do the math to make that lime quantity determination. So the real issue is: whether any lime is needed in the first place (what IS the base pH?), and if needed, how much of what kind of lime is necessary (over time) to change it? pH regulates to what degree nutrients are available for plant uptake, with calcium (CA) and magnesium (MG) being the primary micronutrient data points.
Therefore, no lime determination should be made without a FULL nutritional value analysis too.
A Routine + micronutrient + organic content lab analysis of a soil sample is an accurate basis for such a determination, and is $$ well spent - at least once. Dolomitic lime is usually the recommended liming agent, with a fineness rating: 5.0% of granules are retained on 2 mm mesh with zero effectiveness. 5.0% of granules passed 2 mm mesh but retained on 0.15 mm with effectiveness of 0.6. 90.0% of granules passed 0.15 mm mesh with effectiveness of 1.0.
Which provides a 95% effective pH change agent, with effective watering-in required in several separate applications. Since you are in Oregon, you may be able to obtain the Nutrite brand of Canadian horticultural lime that I find to be best for my own use. Now the issue of soil structure (tilth) comes to the fore - with regards to percolation. Should be good, with successive compost amendments - even skipping a year - if such additions were 'substantial' and had a fairly high humus content, since the greater volume of compost added into soil, will decompose to 'nothing' in a year - but the humus content remains for centuries. Since Tanya is a composting specialist, and has been adding compost to garden soil for several years, it is not likely that pH is the main issue with poor (bell?) pepper yields. Soil testing is needed as a baseline, certainly. However, Tanya - my 'gut feeling' is leaning toward moisture and/or fungus or nematode issues with the pepper plants, rather than pH. Did the peppers become 'wilted' during the growing season even when water was available? Did the pepper plant roots have any 'knots' or 'galls' on them? What were yields of other veggie harvests like?
What is the watering regime that is being used in the garden, specifically regarding the pepper plants?
What was the watering regime for making compost? Still questions to be answered, before we can help much more, "sight unseen"... Robert | 
