so ive been a tech for about 3 years and just upgraded to general last month and i really want to get into CW. i know its not required anymore but honestly something about it just appeals to me. i picked up a cheap set of paddles at a hamfest and borrowed an old keyer from a club member to try out.

anyway my problem is i cant figure out the right paddle tension and spacing. everything i send sounds like mush. the guy who lent me the keyer set it up a certain way and i kind of messed with it and now i dont know if its me or the keyer settings causing the bad timing. also i have no idea what speed to practice at. ive been using just about every online resource i can find and some say start at 5wpm and others say go straight to 15-20 with the farnsworth method. its all a bit overwhelming honestly.

anyone been through this recently or have advice on the mechanical side of setting up paddles? and does keyer brand actually matter much at this stage or should i not worry about that yet

welcome to the rabbit hole haha. seriously though the paddle tension thing took me forever to figure out and i still tweak mine occasionally. what you want is light enough that your fingers arent working hard but not so loose that you get double letters from bouncing. just sneak up on it slowly — tighten the contact gap just a tiny bit at a time and send some letters until it feels clean. there's no magic number, its totally personal.

on the speed question i'd go with farnsworth. starting at 5wpm character speed is painful because the letters dont sound like letters anymore, they sound like you're counting dots and dashes which is exactly the habit you dont want. i started with LCWO at 20wpm characters and like 8-10wpm effective speed and it was hard at first but i think it rewired my brain faster. took me maybe 3 months to get comfortable enough to actually make contacts.

keyer brand at your stage really doesnt matter much. the cheap ones work fine for learning. once you know what you like you might want something nicer but dont spend money on that yet, spend it on a decent set of paddles if anything. the paddle feel makes more difference than the keyer electronics IMO.

im kind of in the same boat, just started working on CW a few weeks ago. one thing that helped me was just slowing way down and sending individual letters over and over until they sounded right before worrying about actual words. also i read somewhere that you should be able to hear a clean crisp tone on each element — if it sounds smushed the gap between the contacts is probably too small or your sidetone monitor speed doesnt match the keyer speed setting. not sure if thats your issue but worth checking that the speed on the keyer itself matches whatever youre practicing to.