so ive been a technician for about 8 months now and i keep seeing people talk about CW and how great it is and i kinda want to learn but i have absolutely no idea where to start. like do you just memorize all the letters first or do you listen to it or what. i tried looking up some youtube videos and there was one where a guy was just sending at like a million words per minute and i obviously couldnt understand any of it. i downloaded some app but i dont really know if im using it right or in the right order or whatever. just wondering what method actually worked for people because there seems to be like a hundred different opinions on this and i dont know whos right

yeah the youtube thing is a trap, dont start there. what worked for me and honestly what most people i know swear by is the Koch method — basically you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20wpm or whatever, and you dont move on until you can copy those two at like 90% accuracy, then you add one more. the key is your brain learns the sound as a whole thing instead of counting dots and dashes which will absolutely kill you later on. LCWO.net is free and does exactly this, i used it for a few months and it genuinely works if you stick with it even just 10-15 minutes a day. the other thing people dont tell you is it takes a while before anything clicks and then one day it just kind of does. dont give up in week two when it feels impossible

im in basically the same boat as you lol, been at it for like six weeks now. i use an app called Morse Mania which i think is pretty decent for beginners, it sort of games-ifies it which helps me stay consistent. i also found that listening to actual QSOs on like 40m even when i cant understand anything at all still helps somehow, my brain is starting to pick out letters here and there which is pretty cool. just wanted to say youre not alone in finding it confusing at first, the resources are kind of scattered everywhere