so ive been trying to get into CW seriously for the past couple months and finally bought a decent set of paddles (Begali Spark) to replace the cheap bencher clone i was using. the keyer built into my radio is a Yaesu FT-991A and i keep messing up my sending. like i know the characters in my head but when i actually try to send them under any kind of pressure they come out all wrong or mushy sounding.

i think part of it might be my paddle tension or spacing but ive messed with those settings so many times i honestly cant tell anymore what feels right vs what just feels familiar. i run about 18wpm which is maybe too fast for where my hand skills are right now. does anyone have like a baseline for paddle gap and tension when youre still getting comfortable with iambic? or is this more of a practice problem than a hardware problem

honestly it sounds mostly like a practice thing but the settings can definitely make it harder than it needs to be. when i was getting started my elmer told me the gap should be just wide enough that you dont get accidental contacts when you let go, like a business card thickness or a tiny bit more. tension is super personal but if youre fighting the paddle to squeeze it that's too tight, and if it feels floppy and you keep triggering it accidentally thats too loose. takes a few sessions to really dial in.

the bigger thing i'd say is drop your speed. seriously i know 18 feels like it's already slow but if your brain is scrambling to keep up your hands are gonna follow. i went back to like 12-13 wpm for a few weeks and it felt embarrassing but my fist cleaned up a lot. Koch method practice files on your pc with a program like RufzXP or just the LCWO site helped me more than anything else. once the characters are automatic at slow speed the speed comes back pretty naturally.

yeah i had the exact same problem last year. for me it turned out i was holding the paddle handle way too tight, like death-gripping it, which made everything stiff and sloppy at the same time if that makes sense. once i consciously relaxed my whole hand and let the fingers do the work it got a lot better pretty fast. might be worth just watching your hand while you send and see if you're tensing up.