so ive been thinking about trying to learn cw for a while now, just never actually started. i have my general and i see people talking about working stations with cw and it sounds cool but i have no idea where to even begin. like do you just memorize the dots and dashes on a chart or what? i tried that once and it felt completely useless when i actually heard it. is there a specific method most people use or does it just take forever no matter what. also not sure if it matters but i mostly want to be able to ragchew eventually not just send contest exchanges or whatever

yeah dont bother with the dots and dashes chart approach, that'll drive you crazy. the thing that actually works is learning by sound from the start, like your brain needs to hear the rhythm and just know the letter without translating it. look up the Koch method, thats what most people recommend and there are free programs built around it. LCWO dot net is the one i used, its free and you just work through letters one at a time at full speed instead of learning slow and trying to speed up later which almost never works. seriously the slow speed thing is a trap.

for ragchewing youll want to get your copying speed up to at least 10-12 wpm before it stops being exhausting, but honestly even at 5 wpm you can find patient operators on 40m who will slow down for you. just takes time, like months not weeks, but its not as hard as people make it sound once you stop overthinking the chart stuff

im in kind of the same boat actually so watching this thread. i downloaded that morse trainer app on my phone a few months ago and i got through like the first 8 letters and then just stopped opening it lol. i think my problem is i dont have a reason to actually use it yet so it never sticks. someone told me to just get on the air even if youre terrible and that sort of forces you to keep going but that sounds terrifying honestly