so ive been a tech for about 8 months now and keep hearing people talk about cw and honestly it sounds really cool but i have no idea where to even start. like do you just memorize the dots and dashes on a chart or is there a better way. i tried looking it up and theres like a million different apps and websites and i dont know which ones are actually worth using vs just garbage. also how long does it realistically take to get to where you can actually have a qso, not looking to be super fast just enough to actually use it. any advice would help, im kind of overwhelmed by all the options

okay so the chart thing is actually one of the worst ways to do it, at least thats what most people will tell you and i agree from my own experience. you want to learn the sounds, not the patterns on paper. the Koch method is what worked for me, basically you start with just two characters at full speed (like 20wpm) and you just listen until you can copy them reliably, then you add another one. sounds slow and kind of tedious at first but it means you never have to translate dots and dashes in your head, you just hear the letter. LCWO dot net is free and does the Koch method, thats where i started. also the Morse Trainer app is decent if you want something on your phone for commuting or whatever.

as for how long, honestly it varies so much it almost doesnt matter to say. i was making ragchew qsos at maybe 10-12 wpm after about four or five months of practicing maybe 20 minutes a day. some people get there faster. the main thing is consistency, like every day even if its just 10 minutes beats doing an hour once a week by a lot in my experience.

im kind of in the same boat as you tbh, been working on it for a few weeks now. the thing that helped me click was just listening to actual on-air cw, like tune around 7.050 or so slow speed stuff and just try to catch a letter here and there. you wont understand anything at first but your ear starts getting used to the rhythm. also theres a thing called the CW Academy through the ARRL i think, havent done it myself but a guy at my club swears by it, says its structured and you practice with actual people which sounds way better than just staring at an app by yourself