so ive been listening to a lot of HF lately and people just throw around QSL, QRM, QSB, QRN and like a dozen others and i can look them up individually but im still confused about how they actually get used in like real conversation on air. like i know QSL technically means "i confirm" but people seem to use it in different ways depending on context? and then theres all the other abbreviations that arent even Q codes like 73, 88, OM, YL and those dont show up in the same lists

is there like a standard way these get used or is it more just whatever the person feels like saying. because sometimes ill hear someone say QRZ and it sounds like theyre asking whos calling but then other times it seems like theyre using it as a verb almost. anyway just trying to get a better handle on this before i actually start transmitting myself, still studying for my tech ticket

yeah the Q codes thing trips up a lot of newcomers because they were originally designed for CW where you needed to convey whole sentences in just 3 letters. so QRM technically means "are you suffering from interference" as a question or "i am suffering from interference" as a statement depending on context, which is a bit weird when you think about it

in actual use on phone most people just treat them as nouns or adjectives. like someone will say "there's a lot of QRM on this frequency" or "the QSB is terrible today" meaning the signal fading is bad. QRZ is interesting because yeah it specifically means "who is calling me" but people do sort of use it loosely to mean something like "go ahead, who's there" especially at the start of a net or after a cq

the 73 and 88 thing is totally separate, those are from the old telegraph codes, 73 means best regards and 88 is love and kisses which is why you only ever send 88 to a YL which means young lady. OM is old man and it just means any male operator regardless of actual age. none of that is Q code stuff but it all kind of blends together when youre new to it. honestly the best way to learn it is just to listen more, youll pick up the patterns pretty quick

QRZ.com is also a callsign lookup website which throws people off when they first hear it mentioned, like is someone asking whos calling or talking about a website lol. context is everything honestly. dont stress too much about it before your ticket, most of it just clicks once you get on air and start actually talking to people