A way of getting a basic intro would be to get your amateur radio license. It is pretty easy to do either by self study or by taking a class.

Afterwards you can build a cheap little morse code transceiver, then if you are ever asked again if you have soldered stuff you can tell them you are a ham operator and have built your own radio. You don't need to tell them anything more, like your kit was less that $10 and took about an hour to build: