I started as a kid, my Dad showed me how flashlight batteries and bulbs worked together and other simple circuits. An uncle helped me build a crystal set and I was hooked. I collected old radios and parted them out. I got books and read up and built one tube sets and then bigger ones. I experimented with operating sets and learned how they worked and got shocked and burned from drops of solder.
What I would recommend would be to get some cheap flea market five tube radios for a few dollars each. Some may "work" somewhat already, some not. Read up. There is lots of info on line, and many YouTube videos of radio repair. If you already know the basics of schematic reading, know AC from DC, know what capacitors and resistors and transformers do, here is a good tutorial that takes such a radio through all of its stages.
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/...bes/AA5-1.html
There are lots of other sites! Google "all american five radio" and "AA5 radio" and you can read for days. With a soldering iron and a cheap digital volt-ohmmeter you can do a lot and acquire more equipment as you go along. Get good at simple radios like this and graduate to more complex devices later.