so i've been licensed for about 6 years now and have always kind of avoided CW even though part of me really wanted to learn it. finally pulled the trigger and started doing the lcwo.net lessons a few weeks ago and im actually making some progress, up to about 8wpm copying which feels slow but whatever.

anyway my question is about paddles vs a straight key. i started on a cheap straight key and its fine for practice but i keep reading that most people move to a paddle with a keyer pretty quickly. i picked up a used MFJ-564 iambic paddle at a hamfest last weekend and im trying to figure out how to even hold my hand on it correctly. like do you squeeze both sides at once for the iambic stuff or what? i watched a few youtube videos and they all seem to show something slightly different.

also wondering if the keyer built into my radio (ic-7300) is decent enough or if i should be looking at a standalone keyer. dont want to spend a lot of money on this until i know i'm actually going to stick with it which feels like a fair approach i think

the IC-7300 keyer is honestly pretty solid, you dont need a standalone keyer to start out at all. save that money for later if you really get into it and want things like memories or adjustable weight/ratio. for now just use what you have.

on the iambic thing — yeah it takes a while to click. the basic idea is you squeeze both paddles at the same time and it alternates dits and dahs automatically. but honestly a lot of people (myself included after years of using iambic) eventually switch to single lever or just treat the iambic paddle like a single lever and never really use the squeeze feature much. dont stress too much about the technique early on, just get comfortable making clean characters first. the muscle memory stuff sorts itself out over time if you keep at it.

8 wpm after a few weeks is totally normal, keep going with lcwo. the wall usually hits around 15-18 wpm and thats where people quit. just push through it.

im kind of in the same boat as you, been at it for maybe 4 months now and just got on the air for real contacts last month which was terrifying lol. one thing that helped me a lot was just listening to actual qsos on 40m even before i could copy everything. like just having it in the background while i was doing other stuff. your brain starts to pick up the rhythm without you even really trying.

also the MFJ paddles have a bit of a reputation for the tension going loose over time but for learning its probably fine, mine works ok. good luck with it, it really is satisfying once stuff starts clicking