so ive been listening on HF for a few weeks now and I keep hearing people throw out stuff like QSL and QTH and QRM and honestly i dont know half of them. I know QSL means like confirmed or something and QTH is your location but beyond that I'm pretty lost. Is there like a standard list I should just memorize or do most operators only really use a handful of them in practice? Also heard someone say 73 and 88 the other day which I guess aren't Q codes but still had no idea what those meant either. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the shorthand honestly.

Yeah don't stress about memorizing all of them, there's like 100+ official Q codes but realistically on the air you're gonna hear maybe 15-20 regularly. QSL is acknowledged/confirmed, QTH is location, QRM is interference from other stations, QRN is natural noise like static, QSB is fading signal, QRZ is asking who's calling, QRP means low power operation and people use that one a lot. QRO is high power, QSY means change frequency, QRX is standby. 73 just means best regards, it's not a Q code but it's been around forever, and 88 is hugs and kisses which you mostly hear between close friends on air or sometimes YL operators. Honestly just listen for a while and they'll start clicking. I kept a little cheat sheet printed out next to my radio for the first few months and that worked fine.

the other thing worth knowing is people use some of these in ways that drift a bit from the original ITU definitions, like QRP technically just means reduce power but the whole low power community has basically adopted it to mean operating under 5 watts period. so sometimes context matters. same with QSL which started as a procedural code but now also refers to the confirmation cards people collect and send to each other. you'll figure it out as you go, i still occasionally hear one that makes me go huh and have to look it up