so ive been a tech for about 3 years and just upgraded to general last month, always wanted to try CW and figured now was the time. picked up a used Bencher BY-1 paddle off ebay and borrowed a friends old MFJ keyer to practice with.

heres my problem — i cant seem to get the feel right at all. im practicing around 10-12 wpm with the Koch method using LCWO and that part is actually going okay, but when i sit down at the paddle everything feels wrong. my dits and dahs are coming out all mushy and i keep getting double characters. i messed with the keyer weight settings but honestly im not even sure what im adjusting half the time.

is there like a good starting point for paddle tension and the gap between the contacts? i have no idea what im doing mechanically here and the manual for the MFJ is not helpful at all. also should i be practicing sending more or just focus on receiving first? i read both opinions online and now im more confused than when i started.

Oh man I remember this exact stage, it was maddening for me too. For the contact gap on the Bencher, start super small — like just barely a business card thickness or even less. A lot of people open it too wide thinking it needs room and then you end up fighting the paddle the whole time. Tension is personal but start on the lighter side and work up from there.

As for sending vs receiving — honestly just do both at the same time from the start. Trying to separate them completely doesn't really work the way your brain learns CW. When you practice on LCWO, after each session just spend 5-10 minutes sending the same characters back with your paddle even if it sounds terrible. Your hand and your ear need to learn together. The mushiness usually goes away once the muscle memory kicks in, it just takes longer than you'd think. Stick with it, 10 wpm QSOs are totally out there and people are patient with newer CW ops.

the MFJ keyers can be a little finicky with the weight adjustment, i had one years ago and ended up just leaving the weight at noon (straight center position) and forgetting about it until i had enough hours on the paddle to even notice a difference. dont overthink the settings early on honestly.

one thing that helped me a ton was finding a slow CW net — like the Straight Key Century Club has stuff going on and people there are super patient. actually copying real QSOs even slow ones is way different than copying computer generated stuff and worth doing sooner than you think.