Subj : ARRL Philanthropist, Radar Detector Pioneer, Michael Valentine, W8MM, Silent Key To : QST From : ARRL de WD1CKS Date : Thu Sep 19 2024 08:09 pm 09/19/2024 Michael "Mike" D. Valentine, W8MM, of Cincinnati, Ohio, passed away on Monday, September 16, 2024. He was 74. Mike and his wife of 51 years, Margaret "Peg" K. Valentine, have been the most generous individual supporters of ARRL The National Association of Amateur Radio. Valentine earned his amateur radio license as a teenager. "I was first licensed as WN8MSF and WA8MSF, simultaneously in the spring of my freshman year in high school, 1964. I was a combo Novice and Technician, as was customary in those days for technically proficient beginners...," he wrote in his biography for the Quarter Century Wireless Association. His interests in amateur radio and electronics led Valentine to enter the electrical engineering program at the University of Cincinnati, where he met Peg. He was selected by the R. L. Drake Company as an engineering coop student. He would go on to work for Drake and Cincinnati Electronics after graduation in 1973. He co-founded Cincinnati Microwave, maker of Escort radar detectors. Mike and Peg founded Valentine Research in 1983. The company designs, manufactures, and sells electronic devices directly to users. Their flagship