so i picked up a used Bencher BY-1 paddle last month and ive been practicing with it every evening but my character spacing is just terrible. like the letters themselves are coming out okay i think but the spaces between words and letters are just a mess. i slow it down on my keyer (running an old MFJ-464 i borrowed from a club member) and it helps a bit but as soon as i try to speed up even slightly everything falls apart.

i spent probably 20 years doing phone and just decided to finally learn CW at 62 years old so maybe im just expecting too much too fast. been using the G4FON trainer software on the computer to practice receiving and thats actually going pretty well, im up to about 12 wpm copy on that. but sending is just humbling me. anyone else go through this? does the spacing thing just click at some point or is there something specific i should be working on

oh man yes the spacing thing is exactly what trips everyone up at first with a paddle, youre not alone at all. the keyer handles the dit and dah timing but the space between letters and especially words is totally on you and your brain just hasnt built that muscle memory yet. what helped me was slowing way down and i mean like painfully slow, like 8 or 9 wpm, and just sending random words over and over and really paying attention to that pause. not trying to go faster, just getting the pauses to feel natural.

also one thing nobody told me when i started was to practice sending while copying something, like have the radio on and try to send along with what youre hearing, even if its way too fast for you to keep up. something about that helped my brain understand the rhythm better. give it a few more weeks at least, 62 is not too old for this by the way, some of the best ops ive worked are retired guys who finally had the time to really dig into CW

the Bencher BY-1 is a solid paddle for learning, good choice. one thing i'd check is your keyer settings, specifically the weight adjustment if the MFJ has one. sometimes a slightly heavier weight setting can make the spacing feel more natural while youre still building muscle memory. also are you squeezing or doing single lever? if youre trying to do iambic mode right away that might be adding to the chaos honestly, some people find it easier to just do single-paddle mode until the spacing clicks and then worry about iambic later