I spent quite a few years as an wide-band RF engineer and I still think it's black magic. If you're not being snobby, you can learn a lot from an experienced bench technician. If you want to get into RF electronics, you need specific features in your spectrum analyzer along with a very good return loss bridge at your target impedance.

I'm another fan of Horowitz and Hill's _The Art of Electronics_ - it's my go-to reference after 35 years in the business.