so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and i mostly lurk on some of the local nets and occasionally make a few contacts on 40m when im feeling brave enough. one thing that keeps tripping me up is all the shorthand people use. like i get that 73 means best regards or whatever but then someone will throw out QRM or QSB or say something like OM and im just sitting there going okay what does that even mean.

i found a list online but there were like hundreds of Q codes on it and i honestly dont know which ones people actually use versus which ones are just historical or whatever. is there like a short list of the ones that actually come up in normal conversation? also are some of them more CW specific or do people use the same ones on phone too. sorry if this is a basic question i just feel like everyone assumes you already know this stuff

totally normal to be confused by this, took me a while to sort it out too. the ones you'll hear constantly on phone are probably QRM which is interference from other stations, QSB which is when your signal is fading up and down, and QTH which just means your location. QSL means confirmed or acknowledged basically, you'll hear people say "QSL that" meaning they understood you. QRN is natural static like from thunderstorms, different from QRM which is other stations causing trouble.

on CW people use them way more because you can just send a couple characters instead of a whole phrase, but plenty of phone operators still throw them around out of habit. the OM thing just means old man, it's just how hams refer to each other, like a friendly way to address another guy. YL is young lady if you're talking to a woman operator. 73 you already know, 88 means love and kisses which is usually only sent to YLs. honestly after a few months of operating you just kind of absorb the common ones without even trying.

the ones i use pretty much every contact are QTH, QRM, QSB, and QSL. thats honestly like 90% of what comes up on a normal sideband qso. also QRP if someones running low power, youll see people say "im running QRP" meaning like 5 watts or under. and QRN when the band is noisy from weather. dont stress about memorizing the whole list, the obscure ones you can just look up if someone uses one you dont recognize