so ive been trying to get back into CW after about a 15 year break and honestly its humbling. i used to be decent, like 15-18 wpm no problem, but now my sending is a mess and im not even sure if its me or the keyer settings.

im using an old Bencher paddle into a MFJ keyer and the dits are coming out way too short or something, contacts on the air keep asking me to repeat. i bumped the speed down to 12 wpm thinking that would help but it almost made it worse because my timing muscle memory is fighting the slower speed if that makes sense. the weight adjustment on the MFJ is maxed out i think, does that matter?

anyway im not asking for a full tutorial just wondering if anyone else went through this coming back to CW after a long time and how long it took before your fist started feeling normal again. also any tips on keyer settings specifically the weight and ratio stuff because i honestly forgot what all that does

oh man yes totally been there. took about 6 months off CW a few years back and coming back felt like learning from scratch. the muscle memory thing is real, your brain remembers the patterns but your hands have kind of forgotten the feel of it.

on the weight setting -- that controls the ratio of dit length to the space between elements, basically if you crank it too high your dits start bleeding into the spaces and everything sounds mushy. i'd back it off to the middle position and work from there. the MFJ keyers can be a little touchy with that pot too so try going slowly.

honestly the thing that helped me most was just running Koch method again on the computer like i was a total beginner. felt embarrassing but after a couple weeks my copy came back way faster than my sending did. just stick with it, 12 wpm is fine, nobody cares about speed on the air as much as people think

also check the tension on the Bencher paddle itself. those things go out of adjustment sitting in a box and if the gap is too wide or the spring tension is off youll fight it the whole time without realizing thats the problem. i had mine sitting for a couple years and spent two weeks thinking i was the problem before i actually looked at the paddle gaps and they were way off