okay so ive been licensed for about 3 months now, general class, and i get on HF occasionally but honestly half the time i have no clue what people are saying. like i know CQ obviously and 73 but then someone will say QSY or QRM or something and im just sitting there nodding along pretending i understand. theres also all the abbreviations like OM and YL and DE and stuff that nobody ever really explained to me when i was studying for my test. the study materials kind of glossed over it. is there like a master list somewhere or do people just kind of pick this up over time? also are some of these more common on certain bands or modes, like is CW people using different ones than phone operators? i feel like im missing a whole layer of whats actually being communicated

yeah the Q codes go back to like pre-WWII maritime and telegraph days so theres a ton of them but honestly you only really need maybe a dozen or so for everyday ham use. the ones youll hear constantly on HF phone are QRM which is interference from other stations, QRN is natural noise like static from storms, QSB is when your signal is fading in and out, QSY just means change frequency, QTH is your location, and QSL means acknowledged or confirmed which is also why we send those cards. QRZ is asking whos calling or sometimes people use it wrong to mean calling CQ which drives some folks crazy. on CW and digital modes you get way more of them because its faster to send three letters than a whole word. the abbreviations like OM just means old man which is honestly just how hams refer to any other male operator regardless of age, YL is young lady but again any female operator, DE is from in the sense of this is such-and-such station calling. 73 means best regards and 88 is love and kisses which you mostly hear between ops who know each other. you pick most of it up just by listening, honestly a few weeks of casual monitoring and it starts clicking. there are reference pages online too, ARRL has one i think

QRO and QRP are ones that come up a lot too, high power vs low power, theres actually a whole subculture around QRP operating with like 5 watts or less which is kind of a cool challenge once you get more comfortable. and honestly dont stress too much about memorizing all of them, half the time even experienced operators have to look stuff up if someone uses an obscure one