ok so ive been listening to nets and reading logs and people throw around stuff like QSL and QRZ and QTH constantly and i get the gist of some of them but then someone will say something like QRM or QSB and i have no idea what theyre actually communicating. is there like a standard list somewhere or do people just kind of learn these over time by hearing them enough

also are there ones that are basically never used anymore or ones that only certain modes use? i feel like CW guys use way more of them than phone operators. my elmer just says learn as you go but honestly i'd rather understand them now before i embarrass myself on a net

yeah your elmer isnt wrong, you do just kind of absorb them over time but there are definitely ones you'll hear constantly vs ones that are almost extinct. the everyday ones on phone are really just a handful -- QSL means confirmed or i acknowledge, QRZ is who's calling or sometimes used at the end of a transmission like who's next, QTH is your location, QRM is interference from other stations, QRN is natural static like lightning crashes, QSB is fading signal, QSY means change frequency, QRT means shutting down, QRX means standby or wait a minute basically.

on CW you'll see a ton more because the whole point was brevity in morse. stuff like QRS (send slower please) or QRQ (send faster) or QNI which is net-specific not even an official Q code but people use it anyway. there's actually an official ITU list with like 50+ of them going back to maritime radio days but realistically maybe 15-20 get used with any regularity in ham radio. just hang around nets for a few weeks and youll have the common ones down without even trying

one thing that tripped me up when i started was that some abbreviations people use arent actually Q codes at all, they just look similar. like 73 means best regards and 88 is hugs and kisses (yeah really), neither of those are Q codes theyre just old telegraphers shorthand that stuck around. and DE means 'from' as in W1ABC DE K4XYZ. people mix all this stuff together and its kind of a whole language honestly

i wrote mine on a notecard taped to my desk for like the first 6 months. no shame in it