so ive been doing CW for about 4 months now and i passed my extra so the license isnt the issue, its my actual sending that sounds terrible. im using an old Bencher BY-1 that i picked up at a hamfest and i think maybe the tension or the gap isnt set right? i dont even really know what the gap is supposed to feel like honestly. when i listen back to recordings of myself on the radio i sound like im sending through mud, letters kind of bleed together and my dits especially sound short or clipped sometimes.

im running it through a Winkeyer USB into the computer and also directly into my 590sg. same problem both ways so i dont think its the keyer settings although i havent really dug into the weight setting much. been running about 18 wpm which i thought was reasonable but maybe thats too fast for where im at. anyone been through this and figured it out?

the gap thing is super important and honestly most people set it too wide when they're starting out. for the BY-1 you want just barely enough space that the paddle doesnt make contact when you're not touching it — like a business card thickness or maybe a hair less on the dit side. too wide and you have to push farther to close the contact and that creates exactly the mushy uneven sending you're describing because your hand has to travel too far.

also 18 wpm might actually be part of it. theres kind of an awkward zone where you're going fast enough that your brain cant fully keep up but slow enough that you're consciously thinking about each letter instead of just flowing. some people find it helps to either slow way down to like 12-13 and really clean up the muscle memory, or bump up and let your hands just do what they know. sounds counterintuitive to go faster but it works for some folks. the weight adjustment in the Winkeyer is worth playing with too, adding a tiny bit of weight to the dits can help them feel more solid.

i had almost exactly this problem last year, also on a Bencher actually. turned out one of my contact points was slightly tarnished and making intermittent contact. cleaned it with a little deoxit and suddenly half my problems went away. might be worth checking especially if its an older used paddle, hamfest stuff can sit in boxes for years.