Okay so ive been wanting to learn CW for probably two years now and i finally broke down and bought a cheap dual-lever paddle off ebay, nothing fancy. Got it hooked up to my keyer (the one built into my FT-891) and im just... not getting it. Like the spacing is all wrong and sometimes i get these runaway dits that just keep going and it sounds like complete garbage. I practiced on a straight key for a few months before this so i thought i knew the rhythm but the paddle is a whole different animal.

Is this a tension adjustment thing? The paddles feel pretty mushy when i squeeze them. Or am i just expecting too fast of a learning curve here. Would really appreciate any advice from people who made this transition because im getting frustrated enough to go back to the straight key honestly.

Oh man i went through exactly this about three years ago. The mushy feel is almost certainly your gap adjustment — those cheap paddles usually ship with way too much gap between the contact and the paddle arm. You want just barely a hairs width, like you should almost be able to see light through it but not quite. Tighten up the tension springs too, most people run them way too loose starting out.

Also slow your keyer way down, i mean really slow, like 8 or 10 wpm even if you feel like youre already going slow. The runaway dits thing sounds like your iambic mode might be set to mode B and youre used to mode A or vice versa — worth checking in the menu. Once the mechanical stuff is dialed in it starts clicking and you kind of feel it more than hear it. Give it a few weeks before you give up on it.

the transition from straight key to paddle took me way longer than i expected too so youre not alone. one thing that helped me was just doing the alphabet over and over super slowly and not worrying about copying anything, just sending. also there are some youtube videos where guys show their hand position on the paddle and i think i had my fingers totally wrong for like the first month lol. what keyer speed do you have it set to?