I have been involved with Radio in various capacities for, on and off, 60 years. Here I offer a few gleanings which you might find useful:

Crawley Amateur Radio Club  National Field-day 1963 - YouTube1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st057VWBPvQ&feature=youtu.be

Basic construction techniques:

Soldering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqV2xU1fee8

Successful_Wire Ant_sample

SDR

SDR (software defined radios) are listening radios which kind radio amateurs have connected to the internet. They work in a way that many individuals are able to operate the radio as though they had sole control of it. There are many of these located around the world and the main index page on WebSdr.org has a map at the bottom of the site which shows them with marker numbers corresponding to their position on the list. By hovering over the marker a sub window is opened giving details of frequencies and bands covered. :

Use of web SDR radios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fks3haN37wI