so i passed my general a while back and kept telling myself id learn morse code eventually and eventually is apparently now. i've been doing the lcwo.net lessons for about three weeks and im starting to recognize letters at like 15wpm but sending is a whole other animal.

i borrowed a cheap single lever paddle from a guy in my club and i honestly cant figure out if my timing is off or if the paddle itself is garbage. everything sounds mushy when i record myself back and listen. the dots run together or theres too much space between things, its hard to describe. the keyer in my radio is a yaesu ft-991a and i think i have it set to iambic mode A but i might be on B, honestly not sure which one is supposed to feel more natural.

do i need to buy a better paddle to learn properly or should i stick it out with the loaner and just practice more. i dont want to throw money at gear before i know if im even going to stick with this but i also wonder if fighting bad equipment is slowing me down. any thoughts from people whove been through this would be really appreciated.

The iambic A vs B thing trips up a lot of people starting out, honestly just try both and see which one feels less weird to you. Some folks never use iambic at all and just use single lever squeeze which is totally valid, dont let anyone tell you theres one right way.

On the paddle quality thing though — yeah it does matter more than people admit. Not saying you need to go spend $300 on a Begali or anything but if the tension is inconsistent or the contacts are bouncy it really does mess with your timing in a way thats hard to diagnose when youre still learning. if the spring tension is adjustable on that loaner try tightening it up a bit and see if the mushy dots clean up. sometimes thats all it is.

Keep at the lcwo stuff, 15wpm copy is actually solid for three weeks in. The sending will catch up, it just takes longer than people expect.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been doing CW for about 6 months now and the thing that helped me most with sending was slowing way down and just doing like 5 repetitions of each letter before moving on. sounds boring but it kind of rewires your hands if that makes sense. also i read somewhere that you should practice at the speed you want to eventually reach even for copying, not sure if thats true but it seemed to help me stop sounding like a dying robot lol