so i just got my technician license a few months ago and ive been reading about CW and it seems like something i want to try eventually but honestly i have no idea how people learn it. like do you just memorize the dots and dashes on a chart or what? i tried that for about a week and i can recognize maybe 5 letters now which doesnt feel like progress

someone at the club meeting mentioned the koch method but didnt really explain it and then got pulled into a different conversation. i looked it up a little bit but im not sure if theres a specific app or program people use for it or if you just kind of figure it out yourself. also is 13wpm a realistic goal for someone starting completely from scratch or is that too ambitious to start with

any advice appreciated, im not in a rush just want to actually learn it properly this time instead of giving up again

ok so the chart thing is basically the worst way to do it, i did the same thing and wasted probably two months on it. you want to hear the characters as sounds, not think about dots and dashes at all. the koch method is legit and the app most people seem to use these days is called morse trainer or just look up lcwo.net, thats a website that does it pretty well and its free

the idea is you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20wpm, and you drill those until you can copy them without thinking, then you add another letter. it sounds weird to start at high speed when youre a beginner but it forces your brain to hear the rhythm instead of counting dots. if you slow it down too much you end up counting and then youre back to the chart problem basically

13wpm is totally doable as a first goal, thats around where most people feel comfortable enough to actually make contacts. give yourself six months of consistent practice, even just 15 minutes a day, and youll get there. the consistency matters way more than how long each session is

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been at it for about three months now. what helped me was just listening to a lot of QSOs on 40 meters even when i couldnt copy anything, just getting used to the sound of it i guess. also there's a youtube channel i found that does slow code practice with text on screen which felt like cheating but honestly it got me to recognize letters faster than anything else

the lcwo site the other person mentioned is good but i found it a little dry so i mix it up with the morse trainer app on my phone when im waiting for something. having it on your phone means you actually practice instead of meaning to practice later lol