so ive been a tech for about a year now and i keep reading about CW and how it opens up so much of the bands and people seem really passionate about it so i figured id give it a shot. problem is i have no idea where to start. like do i just memorize the dots and dashes on a chart or is that totally the wrong approach? i downloaded some app but it just throws random letters at me and i cant tell if im doing it right or not. also someone told me i should learn the sounds not the patterns but i dont really understand what that means in practice. is there a specific speed i should start at or does it matter? honestly any advice would be helpful because right now i feel like im just spinning my wheels

okay so the chart thing is actually what most people do first and it kind of works against you later on. what you really want is to hear each letter as its own sound, like K sounds like dah-dit-dah and you want your brain to just hear that and think K without going through some chart in your head. the Koch method is probably the most recommended way to go about this and theres a free program called Just Learn Morse Code that does it pretty well, or G4FON if youre on windows. basically you start with just two characters at a fairly high speed, like 15 or 20 wpm, and you only add a new character when you can copy those ones reliably. the key thing people always say is dont start too slow because then your brain learns the wrong thing and youll have to unlearn it later which is a huge pain. LCWO.net is another good one and its in the browser so nothing to install. honestly the first few weeks are kind of rough and it feels like nothing is sticking but it does click eventually, just takes time and consistent practice, even 15 minutes a day is better than an hour once a week

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been at it for about 3 months now. i use the Morse Mania app on my phone and its pretty decent for commuting or whatever. still nowhere near being able to actually use it on the air but i can copy maybe 10-12 wpm on a good day which feels like progress. one thing that helped me was just listening to slow CW nets on the air even before i could really copy much, theres something about hearing it in a real context that made it feel more real and kept me motivated. W1AW broadcasts code practice at different speeds too which is nice because you can check yourself against the published text afterwards