ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now and i keep seeing stuff like QSL, QRM, QTH and a bunch of others in peoples logs and when i listen to nets. i know QSL has something to do with confirming a contact but thats honestly about as far as my knowledge goes. is there like a master list somewhere or do people just kind of pick them up over time? also are there ones that are basically never used anymore and ones that everyone uses constantly? i feel like im missing half the conversation sometimes

yeah they can be overwhelming at first but you pick em up pretty fast once you start operating regularly. the ones youll hear constantly are QSL (confirmed/acknowledge), QRM (interference from other stations), QRN (static/natural noise), QSO (a contact or conversation), QTH (your location), QRZ (whos calling), and QSB (signal fading). theres also QRP which means low power operation, and that ones got a whole culture around it honestly. ARRL has a decent list on their site if you want the full thing, but i wouldnt bother memorizing all of them, some are super obscure and you might go your whole life without hearing QUB or whatever. just learn the common ones and the rest will fill in naturally. also half the time on phone people just say them out loud like actual words which is a little weird when you first hear it but you get used to it

dont forget the informal abbreviations that arent technically Q codes but get used just as much, stuff like 73 (best regards, basically goodbye), 88 (kisses, usually between close friends on air), OM for old man which just means any male ham, YL for young lady which is any female ham regardless of age lol. and on CW you see things like ES for 'and', DE meaning 'from', UR meaning 'your'. its almost like a second language. took me a while to realize 73 wasnt some kind of frequency reference when i first started