so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i keep hearing people on the air throwing around all these codes and shortened words and honestly half the time i have no idea whats being said. like i know CQ means calling anyone and 73 means goodbye basically, but then theres stuff like QRM, QSB, QTH, QSL and a bunch of others and i just get lost. and then on top of that theres other stuff that isnt a Q code at all like people saying OM or YL or saying things are 5 by 9 or whatever. is there like a master list somewhere or do people just sort of pick it up over time? i feel like i missed a class or something. my elmer helped me study for the technician exam but we didnt really go over a lot of the on-air lingo, just the technical stuff for the test

yeah its a lot to take in at first, dont worry about it too much. the Q codes actually go back to morse code days when operators needed fast shorthand over the wire, so theres a ton of them but honestly in everyday voice operation you really only hear maybe a dozen or so regularly. QTH is your location, QRM is interference from other stations, QSB means the signal is fading, QSL means confirming receipt of a transmission or it refers to confirmation cards. QRN is natural noise like static. QRP means low power operation which is a whole subculture by itself. on the other abbreviations, OM just means old man which sounds rude but its actually friendly, YL is young lady, XYL is wife basically. 73 is best regards not exactly goodbye but thats how most people use it now. 88 is love and kisses, you see that one more in writing than voice. honestly just hang around on the air and itll start clicking. i kept a little cheat sheet next to my radio for the first year and nobody judged me for it

ARRL website has a decent list, also if you search for like a Q code reference chart you can print one out. i had the same problem when i started and what actually helped me was just doing a lot of listening before i talked much. after a while your brain just starts to recognize the patterns. also 59 not 5 by 9, the signal report thing is called an RS or RST report, readability and signal strength, so 59 means youre perfectly readable and very strong. on CW theres a third number for tone. most of the time on phone people just say 59 to everyone even when the signal is terrible which is kind of a running joke among hams honestly