ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i mostly just listen on HF because im still nervous about transmitting but i keep hearing people throw out these codes like QSL and QRN and QTH and honestly i just nod along and pretend i know what theyre saying. i looked some of them up but there are like hundreds of them and i dont know which ones actually get used vs which ones are just in the book and nobody uses them in real life.

also people on digital modes like FT8 seem to use different shorthand too? like 73 i know means best regards or goodbye or something but what about 88 i saw that once and wasnt sure if it was a code or what. just trying to figure out whats actually commonly used so i dont sound completely clueless if i ever actually key up

yeah the Q code thing can be overwhelming at first but honestly you only need maybe a dozen or so for everyday use. QTH is your location, QSL means acknowledged or confirming a contact, QRM is interference from other stations (man-made), QRN is natural static and noise, QSB is signal fading, QRZ means who is calling me, QRO is increase power and QRP is low power or decrease power. those right there will cover probably 90% of what you hear in casual conversation.

as for 73 yeah thats just the traditional sign-off, best regards basically. 88 means love and kisses, its usually used between close friends on air or sometimes when talking to a spouse who also has a license. you'll also see 55 sometimes which means good luck. none of those are Q codes though theyre just traditional amateur abbreviations that go way back to telegraph days honestly.

the FT8 stuff is a bit different because thats so automated most of the abbreviations are just part of the software protocol, you dont really need to memorize those the same way

dont stress too much about memorizing all of them, i been licensed 6 years and there are still Q codes i have to look up. the ones that trip people up sometimes are QSY which means change frequency, and QRT which means im shutting down or stopping transmission. you'll hear QRT a lot when someone is signing off for the night like "going QRT" meaning theyre done for the evening.

oh and QRP is kind of its own whole culture thing, low power operating, theres entire communities built around running 5 watts or less. so if someone says theyre a QRP op they usually mean thats their whole thing not just that theyre turning down the power at that moment