ok so ive been listening to a lot of HF lately and people are constantly using these like QSL QRZ QRM and a bunch of others and i know QSL means like acknowledged or something but im honestly lost on most of them. is there like a standard set i should learn first or are there hundreds of them? also people use other abbreviations that arent Q codes at all like 73 and stuff and i dont know if those fall under the same category or are totally different. been licensed about 4 months so still figuring all this out

yeah theres technically like 100+ official Q codes but honestly in everyday ham use you probably only need to know maybe 20 or so to get by. the ones you'll hear constantly on HF are QSL (confirmed/understood), QRZ (who is calling me), QRM (interference from other stations), QRN (static/natural interference), QSB (fading signal), QRT (shutting down/going off air), QSY (change frequency), QTH (location), QRP (low power), and QRO (high power). those right there will cover like 90 percent of what you hear on a regular basis.

and yeah 73 is totally separate, that one goes way back to telegraph days and just means best regards or good wishes, same with 88 which means love and kisses and you'll mostly hear that between people who know each other well. there's also stuff like de which just means from in morse code context, so you'll see like W5XYZ de K4ABC meaning K4ABC is calling W5XYZ. once you start doing some CW it all clicks into place real fast.

one thing that tripped me up when i was new is that some of the Q codes change meaning depending on wether its a question or a statement. like QRV as a question is are you ready and as a statement means i am ready. most of the time in casual voice operation people dont really use them as questions but its good to know. also dont stress too hard about memorizing them all at once, you just kinda pick them up after hearing them enough times on the air