so ive been at this for a few months now and just cant seem to get the iambic mode to feel natural. im using a Bencher BY-1 into a Winkeyer USB and the dit/dah ratio feels off somehow. like when i squeeze for certain letters like C or K the keyer seems to spit out an extra dit at the end and words start looking like garbage on the other end.

i tried slowing way down to like 12 wpm and it helps a little but even then i'll mess up a C and it comes out as something weird. somebody at the club said maybe i should just switch to mode A from mode B (or was it the other way around) but i honestly dont fully understand the difference. do i just need more practice or is there actually a setting i should be tweaking on the Winkeyer software. ive read the manual twice and im still fuzzy on it

the mode A vs mode B thing trips up a lot of people and honestly even experienced CW ops argue about which one feels better. quick version: Mode B will add a trailing element when you release the paddle at certain points in a squeeze, Mode A doesn't. most folks who learned on a bug or a straight key find Mode A more predictable because it stops exactly when you let go. try switching to Mode A first and see if that clears up the doubling on your C's and K's before you mess with anything else.

also worth checking your paddle tension and contact gap — if the contacts are too sensitive the keyer might be seeing phantom closures, especially if your technique is still developing and you're resting your fingers on the paddles between characters. that was my issue for about the first year of my iambic adventure, drove me absolutely nuts.

yeah im kind of in the same boat, been messing with my KX3's internal keyer settings for weeks. one thing that actually helped me a lot was just practicing individual characters super slow with a metronome app on my phone, like not even trying to send words just drilling the problem letters over and over until the muscle memory clicks. sounds tedious and it is but it helped more than any settings change did for me honestly