so ive been a tech for about two years and just upgraded to general last month and i really want to get into CW. i know i dont need it for the license anymore but theres something about it that just pulls me in, maybe its the old school factor i dont know.

anyway i picked up a cheap single lever paddle at a hamfest and im using the keyer built into my IC-7300. its... okay i guess? but i keep reading about iambic mode A vs mode B and honestly i still dont fully understand which one im supposed to use. the radio defaults to mode A i think. is that fine to just leave it or does it matter that much when youre just starting out?

also any tips for building up speed would be great. im sitting at maybe 8-10 wpm right now and it feels like ill never get past it. ive been using the lcwo.net site which is pretty good but some days i just cant make my hand and brain work together at all

mode A vs B honestly doesnt matter much when youre learning, dont get too hung up on it. most people find one that clicks with them eventually but at 8-10 wpm its not gonna make a real difference. just leave it on A for now and focus on getting comfortable with the paddle.

the hand-brain disconnect thing you mentioned is totally normal and actually a sign youre doing it right — youre trying to send from memory rather than thinking about each dit and dah. that feeling goes away with time. i remember feeling the same way around that speed and then somewhere around 13-14 wpm something just kind of clicked. keep at lcwo, its a solid tool. also dont neglect actual on-air time, even just listening to slow CW nets. there are a few good ones on 40m in the evenings if you poke around.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you, just hit 12 wpm after about 4 months of practice. One thing that helped me a lot was switching from random letter groups to actual words — real words apparently stick in your head better because your brain already knows what to expect. There's a setting on lcwo for that I think.

Also I read somewhere that you shouldnt practice more than like 20-30 minutes at a time because your brain needs time to consolidate the patterns. I dont know if thats scientifically true but i started doing shorter sessions and it did seem to help actually.