so ive been at this for about 8 months now and im kind of stuck in that weird middle zone where im too slow to actually have a QSO without panicking but fast enough that the 5wpm practice stuff feels too easy. currently sitting around 11-12wpm on a good day, maybe 9 if im tired or the sending is sloppy.

i've tried just doing the LCWO lessons every morning which helped me get to where i am now but lately it feels like im just spinning my wheels. read somewhere that you're supposed to learn the characters at like 20wpm timing even if your overall speed is slow — the farnsworth method i think? been doing that for about three weeks and honestly not sure if its helping or not, hard to tell.

what actually made the difference for you when you were trying to push through this range? did you just do more of the same stuff or change up your approach completely? any specific resources or just like a certain number of minutes per day thing that clicked? feels like ive been at 11wpm forever and its a little discouraging tbh

that plateau you're describing is super common, almost everyone hits it somewhere in the 10-13wpm range. what got me through it was honestly just getting on the air even when i wasnt ready. i know that sounds backwards but i started calling CQ on 40m at like 13wpm and just... dealing with it. yeah sometimes people would send back faster than i could copy and id have to ask for repeats (QRS or PSE RPT) but you learn SO much faster when theres actual pressure and a real person on the other end versus just a computer program.

the farnsworth thing is solid though dont give up on it yet. three weeks isnt really long enough to feel the benefit, i think it took me close to two months before my brain started automatically recognizing characters at speed instead of counting the dits and dahs. also if you arent already, try copying just the first letter of each word when you miss something instead of stopping and trying to figure out what you missed — keep moving forward. thats a huge one that nobody tells beginners

RufzXP changed everything for me, its a callsign practice program and it sounds kind of boring but it pushes your speed automatically as you get better which is really motivating. also just listening to W1AW bulletins on shortwave even when i couldnt copy everything — just having real CW in my ears for like 20 mins a day seemed to help even when it felt like i wasnt understanding much of it