Mark Stevens

so ive been licensed for about 3 months now, general class, and i get on the air sometimes and people are just rattling off all this shorthand and i can only understand maybe half of it. like i know QSL means confirmed and QTH is location but then someone said QRM and QSB in the same sentence and i just kind of nodded along like i knew what was happening lol. and then on digital modes its even worse because people use all these abbreviations that arent even Q codes, like OM and YL and 73 and stuff. is there like a master list somewhere or do people just kind of pick it up over time. i looked some of it up online but different sites say slightly different things and im not sure which ones are actually used in practice vs which ones are just technically in some old ITU document that nobody actually uses anymore.

so i joined my county ARES group about 6 months ago and ive been going to the monthly nets and did the IS-100 and IS-200 courses online like they asked. feels like ive been doing a lot of studying and not much actual radio work if that makes sense. anyway there's a big marathon coming up in our area next month and the EC said this will probably be my first real activation. mostly just packet and voice relay between aid stations and the finish line from what i understand. im not super worried about the technical side but i guess i dont really know what to expect in terms of like... how the day actually goes? do you just sit at your assigned spot the whole time or is there more moving around, do they give you a briefing beforehand, that kind of thing. also is it weird to bring a handheld as backup even if they assign you a post with a mobile rig? i have my trusty vx-8 and id feel better having it just in case

ok so ive been lurking on this site for a while and i finally decided i want to actually get my license but i honestly dont even know where to begin. like i looked up the FCC stuff and it was kind of overwhelming. someone at work has a ham license and he mentioned something about technician being the first one to get but beyond that i have no idea what im doing is there like a standard way people study for this? i downloaded some app but im not sure if thats enough or if i need to buy a book or take a class or what. also how hard is the test actually, im decent with electronics but not an engineer or anything. and how do i even find where to take the test when im ready