ok so ive been listening on HF a lot lately and people throw around all these abbreviations and short codes and i can never keep track of what they all mean. like i know QSL means confirming contact or whatever but then i hear stuff like QRM and QSB and honestly i just nod along pretending i understand. is there like a standard list somewhere or do people just kind of pick them up over time? also some of the stuff i see on digital modes like FT8 is totally different shorthand again. my elmer tried to explain some of it but we ran out of time and i feel bad asking him the same stuff twice. just wondering how other people learned all this

yeah the Q codes go back to like the telegraph era, they were made so operators speaking different languages could still communicate quickly without having to translate full sentences. most of the common ones you'll pick up just from being on the air enough. QRM is interference from other stations, QSB is when your signal is fading in and out, QTH is your location, QRN is static/natural noise, QRZ means who is calling me. honestly the big ones become second nature after a while.

the ARRL website has a decent reference list and theres a few pocket cards people print out. dont stress too much about memorizing all of them at once because half of them never come up in regular conversation anyway. the weird ones like QUF or whatever you'll probably never hear outside of maritime or very old nets

same boat as you honestly, i passed my technician like 8 months ago and still get tripped up. the FT8 abbreviations are a whole different thing too like RR73 instead of just 73 and stuff. i downloaded a Q code cheat sheet as my phone wallpaper for a while lol which helped. QRO and QRP are ones i see a lot on here meaning high power and low power, and 73 isnt technically a Q code but everyone uses it to mean best regards when signing off. you'll get it eventually, just takes some time on the air