ok so ive been listening to a lot of HF lately and people are throwing around all these weird codes and shortenings and i honestly cant keep up. like QSL, QRM, QRN, QTH, 73, 88, and a bunch of others. i know some of them vaguely but not really. is there like a standard list somewhere or do people just kind of learn them over time by listening? also does everyone use all of them or is it more of an older generation thing? i feel like some of the younger ops i hear on the digital modes dont really use them as much but maybe im wrong. anyway just trying to get a better handle on the whole language of it before i try to get on HF myself

yeah there is a pretty standard list, the Q codes originally came from maritime and commercial telegraphy way back before ham radio was even really a thing, and they got adopted because they work across language barriers since most operators internationally would recognize them. the main ones youll hear constantly are QTH for location, QRM is interference from other stations, QRN is static/natural noise, QSB means the signal is fading, QSL is acknowledgment or confirming a contact, and QRZ means who is calling me basically. there are a ton of them officially but in practice most hams only use maybe a dozen or so regularly. the ARRL website has a full list if you want to go down that rabbit hole.

as for 73 thats best regards, been used forever, and 88 means love and kisses which you mostly hear guys sending to their wives or significant others on the radio. some people think 88 is kinda cheesy but its been around forever so whatever. and yeah you are right that on digital modes like FT8 nobody really talks at all so you dont hear much of it there, but on SSB and especially CW the old timers use it all the time and it does make conversations faster once you know what everything means

honestly i just picked most of it up from listening for a few months before i ever transmitted. QRN bugged me for a while because i kept confusing it with QRM but eventually it just clicked. one thing nobody told me early on was that a lot of hams also use abbreviations that arent technically Q codes at all, like OM means old man which is just any male ham, YL is young lady for any female operator regardless of age, and XYL is ex-young-lady meaning wife lol. also FB means fine business like thats good or great, and de is just the word from in CW usage so like if someone says W1XYZ de K5ABC theyre saying this is K5ABC calling W1XYZ. its a lot at first but dont stress it too much, you pick it up faster than you think once youre actually in QSOs