so ive been at this for a few months now and my sending is just... not great. im using a cheap paddle i picked up off ebay and a MFJ keyer, the 494 i think. i set the speed to around 15 wpm because thats where i feel comfortable copying but my dits and dahs sound all mushy to me when i play back recordings. like the ratio just seems off even though i havent touched the weight setting.

i dont know if its the paddle itself or if im just squeezing it wrong. my elmer back in the day told me to just practice practice practice but im starting to wonder if the paddle tension is the issue. ive messed with the gap adjustment a little but honestly i dont really know what im doing there. anyone gone through something like this and figured it out?

yeah the gap on those cheap ebay paddles can be really inconsistent and honestly it makes a huge difference. when i first started out i was blaming my technique for weeks before i realized the contacts on my paddle were just not closing cleanly. you want the gap to be really small, like barely a business card thickness on each side. if theres too much travel before contact youll end up with uneven dits especially at higher speeds.

also the MFJ 494 has a iambic mode A and mode B setting and a lot of people dont realize they might be fighting the keyer itself depending on how they squeeze. try switching modes and see if it feels any different. some guys swear by mode A others hate it. weight adjustment is worth playing with too, i usually bump it just slightly heavier than default and my fist cleaned right up. dont give up on it, CW is one of those things where suddenly it just clicks one day and you wonder why it ever seemed hard.

im kind of in the same boat actually so following this thread. been using a straight key up till now and just got a paddle last week and its a totally different animal. the squeeze thing is way harder than i expected lol