so ive been listening to a lot of HF lately and people are constantly throwing around stuff like QSL and QTH and QRM and honestly i only know like two of them. i know QSL means like confirmed or acknowledged and thats pretty much it. i tried looking up a list online but there are like a hundred of them and i dont know which ones actually get used on the air vs which ones are just old telegraph stuff nobody says anymore.

also people say 73 and 88 sometimes, and i figured out 73 is best regards but what is 88 and are there others like that? and whats the deal with saying things like OM or YL, i assume those are for men and women operators but not totally sure. just trying to get a handle on the common ones before i actually start transmitting myself, dont want to sound like a total idiot

yeah you basically got the right idea on OM and YL -- old man and young lady, though OM gets used for any guy regardless of age, its just a friendly term. XYL is what guys call their wife, stands for ex-young lady which sounds kinda rude when you think about it but its just tradition i guess.

for Q codes the ones youll actually hear all the time are QTH (your location), QRM (man made interference, like someone elses signal messing you up), QRN (static or natural noise), QSB (fading signal), QRZ (whos calling), QRP (low power operation, a lot of guys really get into that), and QSY means changing frequency. QRO is the opposite of QRP, running high power. honestly if you learn those ten or so youre probably fine for most contacts, the rest are pretty situational or just show up in contests and stuff.

88 is love and kisses, traditionally only sent to or by women operators but its not like theres a rule about it. and yeah 73 is the big one everyone uses to sign off. there used to be a whole numbered code system before Q codes, 73 and 88 are leftovers from that.

QRZ is one that confused me for a while too because on qrz.com the website its kind of a different context but on the air when someone says QRZ? they mean whos calling me, like they heard someone call but didnt catch the callsign. took me an embarassingly long time to figure that out from context lol