I would get this magazine www.monitoringtimes.com aka Monitoring Times. It deals with many types of monitoring or radio communication. I used to subscribe to it a few years back and they had several good places for info like Ask Bob. The magazine is ran by a radio communications equipment retailer out of North Carolina. If I was starting out I would go buy a police scanner. That will allow you to monitor such things as Sky Warn. No license required to monitor. From there you can see how much time and money you want to invest in it.
Sadly I think Monitoring Times and Grove Industry’s are no longer with us.
Great bunch of believers, but the money wasn’t there.