so ive been a ham for about 3 years now and always told myself id eventually learn CW. well i finally started and im using just a straight key to learn the characters but someone at the club told me i should be thinking about getting a paddle and a keyer sooner rather than later so i dont build up bad habits with the straight key. is that actually true? i always thought the straight key was the "proper" way to learn

also im using the G4FON koch trainer software which seems pretty good but im only at like 10wpm and hitting a wall around that speed. been at it for about 6 weeks. is that normal or am i doing something wrong. i practice maybe 20 minutes a day which might not be enough i guess

anyway the keyer question is the main thing. i have no idea what to look for, theres so many options and i dont want to spend a ton of money if im not even sure ill stick with it. someone mentioned the Begali paddles and i nearly fell off my chair when i saw the price

the straight key vs paddle debate comes up a lot and honestly both camps have valid points but in my experience learning on a straight key first isnt going to ruin you. lots of great CW ops started that way. what WILL hurt you is practicing bad rhythm, like sending sloppy dashes or uneven spacing, so if youre being careful about that youre probably fine

on the keyer side, you really dont need to spend big money to start. a lot of rigs have a built in keyer these days, does yours? if it does just grab a cheap set of paddles to start, something like the MFJ-564 or even one of the cheaper ones from China on ebay, plenty of people have learned on those before upgrading. the Begali stuff is gorgeous but yeah thats more of a "ive been doing this for 20 years and want something nice" purchase

the 10wpm wall is pretty common, dont get discouraged. a lot of people say bumping your practice speed up a bit even when you cant copy everything forces your brain to recognize characters as sounds rather than counting dots and dashes. worth trying

im kind of in the same boat as you, been at it for about 4 months and just broke through 15wpm last week which felt like a huge deal honestly. the plateau around 10 is real, i spent like 3 weeks stuck there

what helped me was switching to copying actual QSOs off the air instead of just the trainer. even if i could only get maybe half the words it made it feel more like real operating and less like homework. there are some websdr frequencies that have pretty steady CW activity if you dont want to transmit yet

also just a heads up on the keyer thing, my radio has a built in one and it works fine for now. im using a cheapo paddle and it does the job. maybe start there before dropping money on anything fancy