In the days of valve radios, it was a standard rite of passage for 10 year olds to take them apart and find out how they worked. The likes of Richard Feynman, Claude Shannon, and Robert Noyce all started that way. Good luck taking the back off an iPhone, kids—but the whole path from simple radio receivers to megabit interplanetary communication is still there. Amateur radio will take you every step, bypassing barriers and making connections. There’s a reason ham radio is aboard the International Space Station.
Source: When everything else fails, amateur radio will still be there—and thriving | Ars Technica