so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and im starting to get more comfortable on HF but honestly every time i listen to a QSO or try to have one myself i feel completely lost with all the shorthand. like what is QRM vs QRN, i kind of figured out QSL means like acknowledgement or confirmation but even that im not 100% on. and then people throw in stuff like 73 and 88 and OM and YL and i just nod along hoping nobody asks me anything directly lol. is there like a standard list somewhere or do you just kind of pick it up over time? also heard someone say QRT and QRZ on a pileup and had no idea what was happening. feel like im missing half the conversation every time i key up

yeah you definitely pick most of it up just from being on the air but here are the ones you'll hear constantly. QRM is man-made interference, like someone else's signal stepping on yours or just general radio noise from other stations. QRN is natural static, like lightning crashes and atmospheric stuff. QSL is yeah, confirmed, got it — comes from the old telegraph days. QRZ means "who is calling me" so when you hear someone say QRZ in a pileup they're asking who's calling, not that they got your call. QRT means shutting down, going off the air. 73 is just the classic signoff, means best regards basically, been used since the telegraph era too. 88 is love and kisses, usually sent to or from a YL which is a young lady, though it really just means any female operator. OM is old man which sounds rude but its just what hams call each other, doesnt matter how old you actually are. honestly the ARRL website has a decent reference page and there's a few laminated cheat sheets people sell, might be worth having one near the rig when youre starting out

QRZ is the one that tripped me up forever because i kept thinking it meant the same as QSL. took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out why people were saying QRZ after already making contact lol. also worth knowing QSB which is signal fading, youll hear that a lot on 40m in the evenings when signals are going up and down. and QTH is your location. theres honestly like a hundred of them officially but maybe 20 that actually come up in regular conversation so dont stress about memorizing the whole list right away