so ive been trying to get back into CW after maybe a 15 year break and im using an old Bencher paddle i dug out of a box connected to my IC-7300. the iambic mode on the radio keyer is set to Mode A i think and i keep getting these weird extra dits or the spacing between letters is all off. im sending at like 15 wpm which used to feel comfortable but now everything sounds mushy when i play it back on the monitor.

not sure if its my paddle tension thats too loose or if i just need to re-adjust the dit/dah ratio or what. i did tweak the weight setting a little but honestly i dont really remember what all these settings do anymore. been watching some youtube videos but they all seem to be either for total beginners or way too advanced. anyone been through this and have a tip for getting the feel back without spending weeks on it

oh man i went through almost the exact same thing a couple years back after a long break. for me the big thing was the paddle gap — it was way too narrow and i was getting all kinds of unintended contacts. the Bencher BY-1 especially can be a bit fiddly. i ended up opening the gap a tiny bit more than felt natural at first and it really cleaned things up.

also dont sleep on the weight/ratio setting. on the 7300 i keep mine at maybe 3:1 and weight dead center at 50. if your dahs are sounding long and draggy try bumping the speed up a couple wpm even if it feels fast, sometimes that actually tightens things up because you stop fighting the keyer. and yeah Mode B vs Mode A can throw you off if you muscle memory was built on one and you switched, worth checking which one you originally learned on if you remember

15 wpm is actually harder to come back to than like 20+ in my opinion because theres more time to overthink each character lol. i had an elmer tell me to just send random 5 letter groups for 20 minutes a day without worrying about what your sending, just focus on the rhythm. took me about two weeks and things started clicking again. also the playback feature on the 7300 is great for this, just brutal hearing your own fist recorded back at you but it works