so ive been a tech for about a year and a half and i keep hearing people talk about how great cw is and i kind of want to learn it but honestly i have no idea where to start. like do people still use those cassette tapes or whatever, i know thats old school. i downloaded some app but i just sat there for 20 minutes feeling completely lost and closed it.

i guess my main question is is there like a method that actually works for complete beginners or is it just one of those things where you grind it out until it clicks? i can already read the dots and dashes on paper but i know thats not really the point. someone at my club said to learn it by sound from the start and not bother with memorizing the patterns visually but i dont know if thats right either

your club guy is absolutely right, do not learn the visual patterns. that way leads to pain, trust me, i spent like 3 months doing it wrong and had to basically restart. your brain needs to hear E and just know its E, not go dot... dot means E. that middle step kills your speed forever.

the method that worked for me and honestly most people ive talked to is the Koch method, basically you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20wpm, and you only add a new character when you can copy the existing ones at 90% accuracy. sounds counterintuitive to start fast but it really does train your ear differently than starting slow. LCWO dot net is a free website that does this automatically, you just work through the lessons and it tracks your progress. i also used the Just Learn Morse Code software for a while which does the same thing.

dont expect it to feel natural for a while. it took me probably 6 months of 15 minutes a day before i could have even a slow QSO, but it does eventually click and when it does its kind of amazing honestly

im in the same boat actually, been trying to learn for like two months now. what helped me besides the LCWO site was listening to the W1AW code practice transmissions, they broadcast on shortwave at different speeds and reading along with the published text. its old fashioned but something about hearing real radio signals instead of computer beeps makes it feel more real i guess, keeps me more motivated anyway