so i got my technician license a few months ago and ive been reading about CW and it sounds really interesting but honestly i have no idea how to even begin learning it. like do people just memorize the dots and dashes on paper or is there some better way? i tried looking up some stuff online but theres so many different opinions and apps and methods that i got kind of overwhelmed and closed the tab lol

i dont have any particular goal with it, just want to eventually be able to make a contact or two on 40m or something. not trying to be a contester or anything. just curious if anyone here has done this from absolute zero and what actually worked for them

yeah this is one of those things where everybody has a strong opinion so i'll just tell you what worked for me. forget the dots and dashes on paper, seriously, that'll slow you down. the whole point is to get your brain hearing a letter as a sound, not mentally counting dit-dah-dah and then going oh thats a W. that extra step will kill you at any real speed.

what i did was use the Koch method, theres a free program called LCWO dot net that walks you through it. you start with just two characters at like 20wpm and only move on when you can copy them reliably. its kind of maddening at first because you feel like youre getting nowhere but after a few weeks something clicks and the letters just start coming. i spent maybe 15-20 minutes a day on it and got to about 10wpm copy in maybe 3 months, which was enough to get on the air and muddle through a QSO. the on-air practice is honestly what pushed me past the plateau, no app really replicates that.

im in kind of the same boat as you actually so take this with a grain of salt but ive been using an app called Morse Mania on my phone just during lunch breaks and stuff and its been helping me at least get the alphabet down. its not gonna make you fast but for just recognizing letters its pretty decent. also theres a guy on youtube who does slow code videos which i found helpful early on when lcwo felt too intense

havent made a cw contact yet myself but im getting closer i think, can copy my own callsign at least haha