so i just got my technician license a few months ago and ive been reading about HF and everyone keeps talking about CW and how its still super useful especially for DX and weak signal stuff. i never learned morse code and honestly it always seemed kind of impossible to me, like how do you just hear a bunch of beeps and know what letters they are. but im starting to think maybe i want to try learning it, i dont know. my grandfather was a navy radioman and used to do CW and i kind of want to connect with that i guess.

anyway i dont really know where to start. ive seen some apps mentioned and something called the koch method but i dont totally understand how that works. is it better to just memorize the dots and dashes first or is that a bad idea? i feel like thats how i would naturally approach it but ive heard people say thats the wrong way to go. just looking for whatever advice people have, im not in any hurry but i want to actually make progress and not spin my wheels for months

yeah definitely dont memorize the dot dash patterns, that will slow you way down later because you end up having to translate in your head instead of just hearing the character. the whole goal is to eventually hear dah-dit and just know its N without thinking about it, same way you hear a word in english and dont sound it out letter by letter anymore.

Koch method is the way most people recommend and i think it works well. basically you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20wpm or whatever, and only move on to adding the next character when you can copy those two at like 90% accuracy. the speed thing is important because if you practice at 5wpm youll get stuck at 5wpm and struggle to ever copy faster. LCWO dot net is a free website that does koch method and a lot of people use it, i think its still the main one people point beginners to. theres also the Just Learn Morse Code software if you want something on your pc. some guys like the Morse Toad app or Ham Morse on the phone.

the other thing i would say is just listen to actual CW on the air even before you can copy it. tune around 7.050 or so in the evenings, the slower stations around 14.050 on 20m. just getting your ear used to the rhythm of real QSOs helps a lot. it wont make sense at first but it stops feeling like random noise eventually. your grandpa would be proud, CW is genuinely a great mode

im in almost the exact same boat, been at it for about 3 months now using LCWO. im up to like 12 characters which doesnt sound like much but honestly it goes faster than i expected once the first few click. the hardest part for me was the first couple weeks where it felt completely hopeless lol. just stick with it even when its frustrating, 15 minutes a day is way better than one big session on the weekend from what ive read