so ive been a tech for almost two years and just upgraded to general last month, and i told myself id actually learn morse code for real this time instead of just doing the minimum. ive been using the G4FON software to practice copying and honestly its going better than i expected, im up to about 8 wpm recognizing most letters without counting dots and dashes which feels like progress.

anyway the question i have is about keyers. right now im just using the straight key that came in a kit i built a while back and its fine for practice but i keep reading that i should move to a paddle and iambic keyer at some point. my radio (IC-7300) has a built in keyer so i assume i can just plug a paddle into it directly? i dont really understand the difference between mode A and mode B iambic either, ive seen it mentioned a bunch but never a clear explanation of what it actually changes when youre sending. any advice welcome, trying not to overthink this but also dont want to start building bad habits

yeah the 7300 keyer works great, just plug a dual-paddle into the key jack and youre good to go. the mode A vs mode B thing trips a lot of people up — basically it comes down to what happens when you release both paddles at the same time. in mode A it stops right away, mode B will finish out the last element before stopping. a lot of ops actually prefer mode A when theyre starting out because mode B can feel like the keyer is "finishing your thought" for you and it gets confusing until your muscle memory is more solid. i ran mode A for probably the first year and only switched to B after i'd gotten comfortable enough that it stopped mattering either way.

the bigger thing honestly is just finding a paddle that feels good in your hand. i spent way too much money on a fancy paddle before i realized i was perfectly happy with a cheaper Begali clone i found at a hamfest. dont go overboard until you know what tension and spacing you like.

im basically in the same boat as you, upgraded to general in the spring and been doing the CW academy thing. one thing that helped me a lot was slowing down on the software and bumping the character speed up while keeping the word speed lower — i think thats called farnsworth spacing? it forces you to hear the letters as sounds instead of counting. i was skeptical but it really does work once you push through the weird feeling of it.

havent made a contact on CW yet but getting closer. good luck with the keyer stuff, ill be watching this thread