ok so ive been listening on HF for a few weeks now with my new license and everyone just throws around these shorthand things constantly and i can barely follow whats going on. like QSL, QRM, QRN, QTH... i know QSL is like a confirmation card thing but i dont really understand why people say it on air too, like "QSL that" or whatever. and then theres the 73 thing which i guess means best regards but where did that even come from

is there a good way to actually learn all of these or do you just kind of pick them up over time? i tried looking at a list online but there were like a hundred of them and most i'll probably never hear. which ones do i actually need to know to not sound completely lost

honestly you really only need maybe a dozen or so to get by on most nets and ragchews. QTH is your location, QRM is interference from other stations, QRN is static and natural noise, QSB is fading signal, QRZ means "who is calling me", QSY means change frequency, QRT means shutting down, QRX is stand by, and yeah QSL just means acknowledged or confirmed depending on context. when someone says "QSL that" on air they basically just mean "got it, copy that."

the 73 thing is old telegraph shorthand, goes back to like the 1800s, different number codes meant different things and 73 just stuck around meaning best regards. 88 is hugs and kisses which you'll hear people send to their wives sometimes at the end of a QSO.

dont worry too much about memorizing all of them upfront, you'll pick up the common ones really fast just from listening. after a month on the air you wont even think about it

same boat as you were about six months ago lol. what helped me was just keeping a little cheat sheet next to the radio for the first couple months. after a while you just kind of absorb them. QRO and QRP tripped me up for a while, QRP is low power operation and QRO means increase power or running higher power, you'll see QRP a lot because theres a whole community of people who do low power stuff as kind of a challenge thing

also QSO itself just means a contact or conversation, so when people say they had a nice QSO they just mean they had a good conversation with someone. seems obvious once you know but i sat there confused the first few times