ok so ive been listening to a lot of HF lately and people keep saying stuff like QSL and QRZ and QTH and honestly i have no idea what any of it means. i know theres like a whole list of Q codes somewhere but when i look it up i get like 50 of them and i dont know which ones actually get used vs which ones are just historical or whatever

also people say things like 73 and 88 and i figured out 73 means best regards kind of but what does 88 mean and why do people use numbers instead of just saying the words. and sometimes i hear people say things like OM or YL or XYL and i dont know if those are callsigns or what. im a new tech who just got my license last month so sorry if this is a dumb question

not a dumb question at all, everyone goes through this. the Q codes go back to telegraph days, they were shortcuts so operators could send common phrases quickly in morse without typing out a whole sentence. QTH is your location, QSL means confirmed or acknowledged, QRZ is basically who's calling me, QRM is interference from other stations, QSB is when your signal is fading in and out. those are probably the ones youll hear the most on voice.

73 is best wishes or regards, its just traditional. 88 means love and kisses, you'll hear older guys send that to their wives on the air sometimes. OM means old man which is just how hams refer to other male operators, not rude at all its just the lingo. YL is young lady which they use for any female operator regardless of age, and XYL is ex-young-lady meaning wife. yeah i know how that sounds but its been around forever and most people just roll with it.

honestly the best thing is just spend time listening and itll click pretty fast. you dont need to memorize all 50 Q codes, maybe a dozen of the common ones and you're good for most conversations.

the one that got me when i started was QRP, people would say they were running QRP and i thought it was a mode or something but its just low power operation, like 5 watts or less. theres a whole crowd of hams who are really into QRP and it becomes kind of its own thing. also QRN is natural static/noise as opposed to QRM which is man made interference, that one comes up a lot when the bands are noisy.