so ive been thinking about getting my general and eventually extra and i keep reading that people say learning cw is worth it even though its not required anymore. i kind of want to try but i have no idea where to start. like do you just memorize the dots and dashes on a chart or is there some other way people do it. i tried looking at a chart online and it just seemed impossible to remember all of it. is there software or apps people use or do you need like a physical key to practice. sorry if this is a dumb question i really dont know anything about this

not a dumb question at all, most people start the wrong way actually. the chart thing is pretty much the worst way to learn, youre basically trying to translate in your head and it slows you down forever. what you want is to learn by sound from the very beginning, like your brain needs to just hear dah-dit and think R without any in-between steps.

the thing most people swear by is the Koch method, basically you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20wpm, and you only add a new character once youre hitting something like 90% accuracy on the ones you already know. LCWO dot net is free and does exactly this online, theres also a phone app called Morse Mania that a lot of beginners seem to like. the key thing is short sessions every day, like 15 minutes is way better than an hour on the weekend. your brain needs repetition over time not cramming.

you dont need a physical key to learn to receive which is where most people start anyway. transmitting comes later and thats a whole other thing to figure out once you can at least copy code in your head.

yeah im in the same boat as you honestly, been at it for maybe two months now. i use the Just Learn Morse Code software on my laptop and also LCWO when im at work on my break. it gets less overwhelming after the first week or two i promise. the first few letters feel impossible and then suddenly something clicks and you just start hearing words instead of individual letters, at least thats what happend for me around week three or so. still not fast enough to do anything on the air but im getting there i think