ok so ive been listening to HF for a few weeks now on my new radio and people throw around all these short codes constantly and i can only figure out like half of them from context. i know QSL means like confirmed or acknowledged or something, and i think QRZ is someone asking whos calling but beyond that im pretty lost. what is QRM vs QSB because i hear both but they seem to mean different things? also people say things like 73 and 88 and i know 73 is goodbye but what is 88 and are there others like that. and then theres stuff like OM and YL and XYL which i kind of get but not really. is there a good way to learn all this or do you just pick it up over time

yeah you basically just pick it up over time but here's the quick rundown on the ones you asked about. QRM is interference from other stations, like man-made noise, somebody elses signal bleeding over or a nearby transmitter causing problems. QSB is fading, like when a signal kind of wavers up and down in strength which happens a lot on HF due to propagation. totally different things. 88 is hugs and kisses, usually sent to a YL which just means young lady, basically any female operator regardless of age. OM is old man which is what guys call each other, and XYL is ex-young-lady meaning a guys wife. kind of dated terminology honestly but its everywhere still. there are also a bunch of operating abbreviations that arent Q codes, like CQ which is a general call to anyone, DE which means from, and UR which is your. people also say GM/GA/GE for good morning afternoon evening. the ARRL has a big list of Q codes on their site if you want to look them up all at once, but like you said you do just absorb most of them naturally after a while of listening.

one thing that tripped me up when i started was that Q codes were originally for morse code so some of them feel weird when people say them out loud in a voice QSO. like technically QSO itself just means a contact or conversation, so saying im having a QSO is kind of redundant but everyone does it. also dont worry too much about getting them all perfect right away, ive been licensed three years and i still occasionally hear one i dont recognize. QRN is another one thats useful to know, thats natural static like from lightning storms, different from QRM which is the man made stuff the other guy mentioned.