so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and finally decided to take the plunge into CW. passed my 5 wpm for the old extra ticket requirement... wait no that was before my time lol. anyway i just wanted to learn it for real, not just because i had to.

been using an old straight key that came with a box of stuff i got at a hamfest, works fine i think, but my sending is all over the place. some days it sounds okay and other days i listen back on a recording and it sounds like a drunk chicken walking across the key. the dits and dahs are inconsistent, spacing is off, and i rush when i get nervous especially if someone actually comes back to me.

im practicing with the Koch method app on my phone for receiving and that seems to be going okay, up to about 12 characters now. but the sending side is killing me. do i need to just get a paddle and keyer at this point or can i get the straight key thing sorted out? i dont want to spend money if im just doing something fundamentally wrong with technique

the rushing thing when someone comes back to you is completely normal and honestly never fully goes away for some folks haha. I remember my first sked with a patient elmer on 40m, I completely fell apart sending my own callsign three times before I got it right.

on the straight key vs paddle question — I'd actually say stick with the straight key a bit longer if you can. there's a school of thought that learning on a straight key first builds better character recognition because you're forming every element yourself, and a lot of the old timers swear by it. the inconsistency you're describing is almost always a tension issue. your wrist and forearm should be relaxed, not gripping tight. if your hand is tense the timing goes all over the place. try resting your whole forearm on the table, not just your wrist, and see if that helps.

that said, once you do move to a paddle and keyer, the Iambic mode can feel strange at first. mode A vs mode B is a whole rabbit hole. but dont worry about that yet, get your straight key sorted and keep running those Koch sessions. 12 characters in 8 months of casual practice is solid progress.

I went through basically the same thing last year. what finally clicked for me was slowing way way down, like embarrassingly slow, and just focusing on clean characters rather than speed. I was so focused on trying to sound like the guys on 40m that I was rushing everything and nothing was clean.

I ended up getting a cheap begali knockoff paddle from ebay and a MFJ keyer just to try iambic and honestly it didnt magically fix anything. I still had to unlearn the bad habits. so yeah what the other guy said about tension is real, also make sure your straight key's contact gap and spring tension are set right because a lot of hamfest keys are way out of adjustment and that makes it so much harder than it needs to be.