so ive been at this for about 3 months now and im stuck. like genuinely stuck. i can copy at 5wpm pretty comfortably if the characters are spaced way out but the moment i try to push it to even 7 or 8 it all falls apart and i start missing characters and then i panic and miss more and suddenly im just hearing noise. its frustrating because i really want to get on 40m CW and actually have a QSO but i feel like im nowhere near ready.

i've been using the Koch method through LCWO.net and i finished all the characters but my copy speed just wont move. someone at the club mentioned i should be listening at 20wpm character speed even if the spacing is slow (Farnsworth method i think?) but i havent really tried that seriously yet. has anyone actually gone from where i am to like 20wpm and how long did it realistically take? also does the jump from 5 to 20 feel as impossible as it sounds or does something click at some point?

the Farnsworth thing is genuinely the way to go, i wish someone had told me that earlier instead of spending like 6 months slogging at slow character speeds. your brain learns the rhythm of the letter as a sound instead of counting dots and dashes and that makes all the difference when you try to speed up. i was in your exact spot probably 2 years ago and what finally broke me through was just making myself get on the air before i felt ready. like seriously just called CQ on 40m at 8wpm with a really slow sending speed and a few people actually came back to me. the live QSO pressure is different from practicing alone and it kind of forces your brain to engage differently.

also dont underestimate just listening to code in the background while you're doing other stuff. not active copying, just having it on. sounds silly but it helped me a lot with recognizing letter sounds without thinking about it. took me about a year to get comfortable around 15-16wpm and i kind of plateau'd there for a while but it did eventually move. dont give up on it.

im in basically the same boat lol, been at it since january and hovering around 6-7wpm. following this thread because i need all the help i can get. one thing i did try was the W1AW code practice transmissions on shortwave which was cool because it felt more real than a computer, even if i was only catching maybe half of it at the faster speeds.