beginner questions re saber

My experience with saber fencing is from (long) before there was electric
scoring for saber. I have a non-electric saber, wondering what parts I need
to convert it into electric. Can I just get a socket and attach it somehow?

Also: when I fenced in college many years ago, I was able to start off in
saber, and stayed with that exclusively. Now that I want to get back into
fencing I find that the clubs around here all want you to reach some level
of skill with foil before doing any saber. In fact, there don't seem to be
many (any?) saber masters/instructors available - maybe that has something
to do with it? Or, is this standard practice? I'm currently learning foil -
but I keep wanting to cut to the wrist :-)