Here's a great link with some pretty good info...
http://101science.com/Radio.htm
Eventually it gets more into RF, but the basics are always basics... You don't really need this much in depth to get into building coils, but in my opinion a solid foundation is always the better way to go... Who knows, if you like to tinker you just might find you really get into this stuff anyway... Years and years ago my passion was computers... and still is... but one year for christmas I got one of those 300-in-1 electronics kits from radio shack... All of a sudden I started truly understanding the inner workings of computers... Eventually started programming my own micro-controllers and went from there... I'm still an I.T. guy, but my knowledge in that area is as vast as it is due to not just understanding the upper layer, but everything underneath as well... In other words, what I'm trying to say is, you can get enough knowledge to safely build without a true understanding of the basics.... But with an understanding of the basics, you might find your understanding of the builds comes much easier and take you much further!
One day you might just find yourself getting into all sorts of crazy crap!
