After their club house storage shed was robbed and vandalized last week, the Cambridge Amateur Radio Club is putting the call out to the community to help them find their equipment.
The shed, located off Eagle Street in a commercial area, acted as the club's headquarters before vandals stole equipment and tried to burn it to the ground.
"They smashed computers, stole a generator and literally tried to set the place on fire," said club president Scott Mitchell.
Damage is estimated to be around $5,000 and police have been notified, but Mitchell and his members are still in shock from what has happened.
"It's just surreal that this happened, we don't really understand why, but it must have been a opportunist type thing," he said. "We are in the process of filing a police report so they can help us as well."
Most of the high-end, expensive equipment was untouched, but things like a generator, mouse and keyboard and other smaller items were taken.
Another piece of equipment taken, to the surprise of Mitchell, was the club's repeater.
A repeater in the amateur radio world is an electrotonic device that takes a low-level signal and re-transmits it at a higher power, sending the signal significantly farther than a typical ham radio.
"Lucky for us the radio community are all connected and the club from Kitchener-Waterloo is letting us use some of their equipment so we don't have to cancel any of our events," added Mitchell.
The radio club has hosted many events here in Cambridge like connecting children at the Idea Exchange with an astronaut on the International Space Station, offering a space to teach about radio technology and connecting with people all over the world with their ham radios.
When Mitchell got the call they had been robbed, he saw pictures of the aftermath; tables and equipment scattered over the floor, broken computer monitors and the walls covered with black burn marks.
"It's definitely been an eye opening experience. We are going to have increased security at the shed from now on to make sure that no one comes back to finish the job, but we are not going to let this stop us from continuing to do what we love," he said.
Despite the robbery being so fresh, the club is expected to work with insurance and police to come back stronger than ever and are determined to not let this incident stop them.
The club does want to warn the community to make sure their sheds and businesses are secured and locked, because all it takes is for one person to see an opportunity, said Mitchell.
"We just want people to know this happened and to be careful; also if anyone saw someone walking with a repeater to let us know, because they are huge," he joked.
