Remembering back to my training a few years ago on all these radio systems, I'm not really sure there's a replacement for gaining a deep understanding of radio wave theory and actually getting out there and building antennas and systems. In one course, we built all the antennas we needed from things like claymore wire and constructed resistors from hammering a nail into the ends of a battery. IMHO that radio hardware itself really does need to be something that "just works" and isn't weighed down by trying to do too much.