so ive been licensed for about 8 months now (technician) and ive been thinking about upgrading but honestly the thing that keeps pulling me toward ham radio in general is morse code. like theres something about it that just seems really cool to me but i have absolutely no idea how to even begin learning it. i tried just looking up the alphabet chart and staring at it but that obviously went nowhere fast.

is there like a method that actually works or is it just one of those things where you grind it out and hope for the best? i dont want to spend months doing it wrong. also not sure if i should be using an app or actual audio or what. any thoughts appreciated, sorry if this is a dumb question

not a dumb question at all, most people start exactly where you are. the biggest thing i'd tell you is forget the chart. seriously just put it away. the whole reason people struggle is they try to memorize dots and dashes visually and then your brain has to do this extra translation step every single time you hear something which is just slow and frustrating.

what actually works is learning the sound of each character, not the pattern. theres a method called Koch that a lot of people swear by where you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20 wpm, and you drill those until you get them right like 90% of the time before adding a third. the app LCWO dot net does this online for free, theres also an app called Morse Toad and one called Ham Morse that are decent for mobile. the key is every day, even just 10 or 15 minutes. consistency beats long sessions. and dont rush adding new characters just because youre bored of the ones you have.

once you have maybe 10 or 12 letters down go find a slow CW net and just listen. dont try to copy everything just pick out words here and there. W1AW sends code practice at various speeds and schedules are on the ARRL site. honestly just start with LCWO today, the first session will feel impossible and thats normal

im kind of in the same boat as you so take this with a grain of salt but what helped me click was youtube videos where someone just sends random letters slowly and you try to write them down. less pressure than an actual net. also i read somewhere that writing out what you hear works better than typing it at first because typing makes you think about the keyboard instead of the sound. no idea if thats actually true but it seemed to help me a little. still only on like 8 letters after 3 weeks so im not exactly flying lol