Micro-Tel was an electronics company based in Hunt Valley, Maryland (US).
It was established in 1962 by Dick Finke (later with Bill Richardson).
The company specialized in high-end microwave receivers that were mainly
intended for the US Goverment and the US Department of Defense.
The company was built on the foundation layed by Richard S. Finke
in 1962 when he started his own company. Being educated
in electronics during WWII, he had build up a strong reputation and
began developing equipment for the DoD.
By 1972, he had teamed up with Bill Richardson to become one
of the most important pioneers in the world of defence electronics.
Together they founded Micro-Tel Inc. and settled down in Hunt Valley,
Maryland (US) where in 1982 they built a brand new 30,000 square foot
facility for 2.6 million US$; quite a lot of money in those days.
Micro-Tel became well known during the early 1980s for its range of
microwave receivers, such as the
PR-700
and the MSR-901.
In 1989, Micro-Tel was taken over by M/A-COM, which in turn was
taken over by Tyco International Ltd. in 1999.
Under Tyco, Micro-Tel M/A-COM became the worlds largest producer
of microwave components and equipment for the defence industry.
In 2008, after a series of complaints against Tyco International
about fraude and bribery in Saudi Arabia, the M/A-COM SIGINT
division was sold to Cobham and is currently known as
Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES). They are no longer based
based in Hunt Valley (MD, USA).
The history of Micro-Tel starts with Richard (Bill) S. Finke, a native of
New York City, born on 31 March 1923 and educated at
schools in the Forest Hills area. When America got involved in WWII
in 1941, Finke was 18 y.o. and studied Electrical Engineering
at the New York University.
In 1943, at the age of 20, he earned a degree in Electrical Engineering
from New York University. Shortly afterwards he joined the Army where
he became an officer in the Army Signals Corps. He spent most of his
time during World War II in Europe.
After the war, he started working for the US
electronics company RCA Corporation and later for the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Micro-Tel Corporation
In the early 1950s, Finke moved to the Baltimore area where he worked
for Martin Marietta Corporation and the Bendix Communication Division,
until he started his own company in 1962. The company became known as
Micro-Tel Corporation and specialized in microwave receivers for the
US Department of Defence (DoD) and for various US domestic
intelligence agencies.
Micro-Tel Inc.
In 1972, Bill Finke met Bill Richardson and together they set up
Micro-Tel Inc. As they wanted to expand the company, they moved to
Hunt Valley, Maryland (US). At the time, they were one of the first
technology companies to settle down in the area, which has since
become one of the region's most important high-tech hotspots.
Adams-Russell
In 1978, Micro-Tel merged with Adams-Russell and was eventually renamed
Adams-Russell, Micro-Tel Division (1981).
The image below shows the Mirco-Tel asssembly workshop in July 1980,
with President Dick Finke and Bill Richardson behind some of the
company's equipment.
Plans were made for a new premises for which they started rasing the
necessary funding in the middle of the recession of 1980.
Below is an artist's impression of the proposed building.
In 1982 a brand new 30,000 square foot facility was erected at
Gilroy Road for no less than 2.6 million US$. In this period, Micro-Tel
became best known for their range of microwave components,
measurement receivers and intercept equipment,
with their typical faint mint colour.
Eventually. Dick Finke sold his shares in the company and retired.
In 1989 he moved from Towson to Oxford (US), where on
28 November 1992, at the age of 69, he died of a heart
attack [1].
M/A-COM
In 1989, Micro-Tel was sold to M/A-COM Inc.,
a Public Company from Burlington, (MA, US) with a desire to expand.
At that time, M/A-COM had well over a 1000 employees
and was growing rapidly [2]. With the acquisition of Micro-Tel they hoped
to expand their business in microwave equipment and components
for the defence industry. In early 1999, Micro-Tel was renamed
M/A-COM SIGINT Products and that same year they won a US$ 3.5
million contract to supply an unknown number of microwave receivers
to the US Department of Defence (DoD) [3].
Tyco
Shortly afterwards, also in 1999, M/A-COM was taken over by
Tyco International Ltd., a Swiss-based electronics giant that
had acquired many companies over the years, in order to increase
their global market share.
As a result, Tyco became the worlds largest supplier [4]
of advanced microwave electronics for the defence industry with
over 3500 employees by 2006 [5].
In 2006, Tyco reported a sales turnover of 12.7 billion US$.
Later that year however,
the tide turned when Tyco was accused of
accountancy fraude, tax fraude, and bribery [6][7].
Several complaints against the company were filed under the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA),
mainly related to a Tyco subsidary in Saudi Arabia,
resulting in a settlement of approx. 30 million US$.
Cobham
Following the 2006 fraude case, M/A-COM was moved from Tyco International
(Switzerland) to Tyco Electronics (Florida, US), but to no avail.
Investigations revealed that the fraude had continued even after the
settlement in 2006. Finally, on 13 May 2008, M/A-COM, and hence
SIGINT Products (which had nothing to do with the fraude),
was sold for US$ 425 million to Cobham Defence Electronics,
one of the largest defence contracters in the United Kingdom [8].
The microwave products division (i.e. the former Micro-Tel)
became a separate business unit of Cobham Defence Electronics,
known as CDES SIGINT, and was still located at the
old address
in Hunt Valley, Maryland (US) in 2013 [9].
A quick search on Google Maps
reveals that the building at 10713 Gilroy Road has hardly changed since 1982.
Apparently it is currently abandoned (2015).
Advent International
On 17 January 2020, following approval from the UK Government and
security guarantees by the buyer, Cobham was taken over by the American
private equity firm Advent International for GBP 4 billion [12].
Immediately after the acquisition however, Advent started divesting most
of Cobham's subsidaries and business units.
18 months into the deal, they
had already sold the bulk of Cobham's operations to other buyers,
leaving no manufacturing operations in the UK.
CAES
In 2021, the former RF division of Cobham became
Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES), with is a standalone
US national company with an independent board of directors [13].
In November 2024, CAES became part of Honeywell International Inc. [14][15].
One of the first people to be hired by Dick Finke and Bill Richardson
after they founded Micro-Tel Inc. in 1972, was Fred Markle who eventually
became the lead design engineer. The image below shows Markle in front
of one of the radio systems he designed. It is part of a series of three
photographs from Markle's estate,
that were rediscovered by his son Jody in early 2025 [16].
The photographs, that were in a deplorable state when they were rediscovered
and had significantly faded over the years,
were colour-correct and digitally enhanced at Crypto Museum.
The timeline below shows the history of Micro-Tel and its products
from its foundation by Dick Finke in 1962, through various mergers
and takeovers, to the present day. As a result of the mergers and
takeovers, the ownership and name of the company changed a number
of times, as listed in the table above.
Addresses
Micro-Tel Corporation
1406 Shoemaker Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21209, USA
Adams-Russel, Micro-Tel Division
10713 Gilroy Road, Hunt Valley, MD 21031-1336, USA
Phone 301-771-0077
M/A-COM Sigint Products
10713 Gilroy Road, Hunt Valley, MD 21031-1336, USA
Phone (410) 329-7915
Cobham Defence Electronics
Business Unit CDES SIGINT
10713 Gilroy Road, Hunt Valley, MD 21031, USA
Phone +1 (410) 329 7900
Any links shown in red are currently unavailable.
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![Micro-Tel assembly workshop in July 1980 with President Richard Finke and William Richardson looking over some equipment [10]](img/500415/000/full.jpg)
![Artist's impression of the new Micro-Tel premises that was built in 1982 [11]](img/500415/001/full.jpg)
