so ive been trying to learn CW for about 3 months now and i finally got myself a cheap Bencher paddle off ebay, hooked it up to my radio's built in keyer. thing is even when i crank the speed way down to like 10-12 wpm it still feels like the dits are running together and i cant tell where one character ends and another begins when i listen back to recordings of my own sending.

i dont know if its the paddle adjustment, my technique, or something with the keyer settings. the contact gap on the paddle feels pretty close together, not sure if thats the issue. been practicing on the air a little on 40m and guys are actually coming back to me so maybe its not as bad as i think but it still sounds kind of mushy to me. anyone else go through this phase or have tips for cleaning it up

yeah the paddle gap is almost definitely part of it. when the contacts are too close together even a slightly heavy touch sends extra dits or dahs you didnt mean to. i spent probably two weeks fighting this same thing when i switched from a straight key to a paddle. try opening up the gap just a tiny bit on both sides, like barely a business card thickness, and see if that helps. also check if your keyer has a setting for dit/dah ratio because some of the built-in ones are a little off from true 1:3 and that can make things sound mushy at any speed. the fact that people are coming back to you is a good sign honestly, you're probably harder on yourself than you need to be.

this is basically exactly where i was maybe 6 months ago lol. what helped me the most was using the MRP40 software to decode my own sending and watching where the errors showed up. it's kind of humbling but you can see right away if your spacing is off or if you're mashing dits together. also i read somewhere that 15 wpm is actually easier to copy than 10 because the character spacing is more natural, might be worth experimenting with bumping the speed up a little even if it feels scary at first