so ive been a ham for about 8 months now and finally got my general and decided i really want to get into CW properly. i picked up a cheap set of iambic paddles from a seller on ebay (not sure of the brand, some no-name thing) and ive been practicing with my K3S's built in keyer for a few weeks. the problem is my sending is just... not great. letters come out uneven and i keep accidentally triggering the wrong element, like i'll go for a dit and get a dah or vice versa. i dont know if its the paddle tension being off or if im just holding my hand wrong or what.

receiving is a whole other thing. i can copy at maybe 12-13 wpm when i really focus but anything faster and the letters just blur together in my head. ive been using the lcwo.net site for practice which helps but it feels like a plateau. somebody told me to try the Farnsworth method and bump the character speed way up even if the word speed is slow, does that actually work or is it gimmicky?

anyway if anyone has been through this and has advice id really appreciate it. also open to paddle recommendations if the no-name thing is really holding me back, though id prefer not to spend a ton of money right now

the Farnsworth method absolutely works, its not gimmicky at all. the whole idea is you want your brain to learn characters as sounds not as individual dits and dahs counted out, and if you practice at too slow a speed your brain never makes that jump. i kept myself stuck at 10 wpm for almost a year doing it the wrong way. once i cranked character speed to 20 and dropped word speed to like 8 or so it clicked within a couple months. frustrating at first because you feel like youre failing constantly but stick with it.

on the paddle side of things, tension and spacing make a huge difference but honestly even a cheap paddle can work if its adjusted right. grab a small screwdriver and start with very light tension, lighter than you think you need, and make sure the gap between the contacts is consistent on both sides. if ones tighter than the other youll keep triggering the wrong element. also think about where your elbow is relative to the paddle, a lot of people have their arm at a weird angle and it creates tension in the wrist that throws everything off. took me forever to figure that out.

im kind of in the same boat so following this thread. i just got a used Bencher BY-1 and i think its a nice paddle but im still not sure im holding it right half the time. someone at my local club said to try straight key first and build up from there but i dunno if that advice is still relevant or kind of old school thinking