so ive been working on my CW for about 6 months now and im finally starting to feel comfortable copying at around 15wpm but my sending is still kind of a mess. i picked up a used Bencher BY-1 paddle a few months back and its honestly a beautiful piece of hardware but something about my timing just feels off when im actually in a QSO versus just practicing with the keyer in sidetone mode.

im running a KX3 with the internal keyer set to iambic mode B, speed at 15wpm, weight at about 50. i keep getting these weird squeezed dits when im transitioning between letters, like my thumb isnt releasing fast enough or something. its hard to describe but it almost sounds like the letters are running together even though individual letters sound fine when i practice them slowly.

anybody else gone through this? not sure if its a paddle tension issue, my technique, the keyer mode or what. im open to basically any advice at this point because it gets frustrating when the other op asks for repeats and i know its my sending not the band conditions

yeah this took me a while to figure out too when i was coming up. honestly the first thing id try is bumping the weight down a little, like to 45 or even 42. some people run higher weight thinking it helps spacing but it can actually make transitions mushier at 15wpm where you dont have as much timing margin to work with.

also check your paddle gap. the Bencher is great but if the gaps are too close you're gonna get false contacts, especially on the dit side when your thumb is hovering. i like just a hair of visible gap on both sides, enough that theres a tiny bit of resistance before it makes contact. takes some fiddling but once you get it dialed in it really does make a difference. give iambic A a shot too if you havent, some people never click with mode B and switching fixed everything for them

im kind of in the same boat so following this thread. one thing my elmer told me was to slow WAY down, like go back to 10wpm in actual QSOs even if it feels embarrassing, and focus only on clean sending rather than keeping up. said it builds muscle memory better than pushing speed before your hands are ready. havent fully committed to doing it yet because i always feel bad asking people to QRS but probably should just do it