so i got my technician last year and ive been thinking about eventually upgrading but honestly the thing that keeps pulling me back to ham radio in general is morse code, like i find it fascinating but i have no idea how people actually go about learning it from scratch

i downloaded a couple apps but i cant tell if im doing it right or if theres like a wrong way to go about it. one app has me memorizing the dots and dashes on paper and another one just plays sounds at me. is one method better than the other? i feel like im just fumbling around with no direction. someone at my club mentioned the koch method but i dont really know what that means or if its the thing i should be doing

also how long did it take you to get to a point where you could actually use it on the air, not looking for an exact answer just a rough idea so i know what im getting into

okay so the dots and dashes thing is actually kind of a trap, a lot of people start that way and it slows them down later because you end up counting in your head instead of just hearing the letter. the koch method basically starts you with just two characters at full speed — like actual 20wpm speed — and you add more letters one at a time only when you can copy the ones you already know reliably. it sounds counterintuitive but it works way better than starting slow and speeding up later

for apps lcwo.net is the one most people around here seem to use, its browser based and you can set it up for koch. also morse trainer on android is decent. the big thing is consistency, even 10 or 15 minutes a day is way more effective than cramming an hour on weekends. took me probably 4 or 5 months of daily practice to feel comfortable enough to have a slow qso, but i was pretty sporadic about it honestly so your mileage may vary

im in the same boat as you actually, been at it for like 6 weeks now and just wanted to say lcwo is what everyone told me to use and i think its working but some days i feel like im going backwards lol. the letters i learned first are solid but when new ones get added my brain just freezes up mid character. i think thats normal? anyway you're not alone in feeling lost at the start