so ive been licensed since 2019 and kept telling myself id learn morse code eventually and here we are lol. i started doing the cwops academy beginner course like two weeks ago and its going okay, im up to maybe 10-12 wpm copy on a good day but sending is a whole other story.

my question is about keyers and paddles. right now im using a cheap single lever paddle i grabbed off amazon (the brand is something like longruner or whatever) and its just... not great. the feel is mushy and i keep squeezing the wrong contact or accidentally double-ditting when i dont mean to. i dont know if its the paddle, my keyer settings, or just that im still a beginner and my hands are bad at this.

my keyer is built into my radio (ic-7300) so im not using a separate one. i have the weight set to like 40 and speed at 15 wpm which feels comfortable to listen to but maybe too fast for me to actually send cleanly. do i need to slow down more or just practice more with what i have before spending money on a better paddle. honestly not sure if upgrading the paddle would even help at this point or if thats just me looking for an excuse to buy gear

honestly the keyer in the 7300 is fine for learning, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. the issue you're describing with the cheap paddle though is real — a mushy, inconsistent action makes it way harder to develop good muscle memory because your hand is constantly compensating. doesnt have to be a $200 beginner paddle either. look at the Vibroplex or even a used Bencher BY-1, they show up on ebay pretty regularly for 40-60 bucks and the difference in feel is night and day.

on the speed thing — 15 wpm sending when youre still learning is probably too ambitious. most people do better dropping to like 10 or even 8 for practice sending and then gradually bringing it back up. your ears might be ahead of your hands right now which is actually pretty normal. keep at the cwops stuff, those folks know what theyre doing

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been at this for about 6 months now. one thing that helped me was recording myself sending and then listening back, which is painful but you really hear where youre rushing or mangling letters. also someone told me to practice individual letters that give me trouble way more than just sending random text, like i had a really hard time with C and Y for a long time and just drilling those helped a lot. good luck, its a slow process but its really satisfying when it starts clicking