so ive been listening a lot lately and people throw around all these abbreviations and im kind of lost. like i know QSL means like a confirmation card thing but then i hear people say QRM and QRN and QSB and honestly i have no idea what half of them mean in context. someone said QRP to me and i thought they were asking me something but apparently its about power levels? i dont know

is there like a standard list somewhere or do people just kind of pick up on it over time. also whats the difference between saying 73 and just saying goodbye, is there a situation where you wouldnt use 73

yeah the Q codes go back to like telegraph days, theres a ton of them but honestly most hams only use maybe a dozen regularly. QRM is interference from other stations, QRN is natural static like from a thunderstorm, QSB is when your signal is fading in and out, and QRP just means low power operation, usually 5 watts or less on HF. some guys use it as a noun too like "im running QRP today"

there are official ITU lists of them online, just search for the ITU Q code list and youll find it. but honestly you dont need to memorize all of them. the ones youll actually hear are maybe 15-20 and you pick them up fast just from being on the air. 73 is just the traditional sign-off, means best regards basically. you can use it whenever, nobody's gonna correct you for using it wrong unless youre on some really picky net i guess

oh man i was exactly where you are about a year ago, it feels like everyone is speaking a different language at first. QRZ is another one you'll hear constantly, people say it when they're asking who's calling them. and 88 means love and kisses which is usually only used toward female operators, though some people debate whether thats still appropriate or whatever

honestly just keep a little cheat sheet next to the radio for a while. i did that for like the first 6 months and now most of it is just automatic