so ive been at this for about three months now, slowly working my way up from around 5 wpm to maybe 10-11 on a good day. got myself a cheap single lever paddle off ebay to start and honestly i think that was probably a mistake but whatever, its what i have.

the problem is my dits and dahs just dont sound clean. like there's no crispness to them and when i record myself and play it back it sounds like a drunk guy trying to tap out morse in the dark. ive been messing with the weight and speed settings on the keyer (its a MFJ-418 or whatever the little handheld practice one is) and nothing really seems to fix it. someone at my club said it might be my paddle tension but i honestly dont even know how to adjust that or if i even can on this thing.

is this just a practice more problem or is there actually something i can tweak to make it feel less like im fighting the paddle every time i send

oh man this sounds exactly like where i was about a year ago. the mushy sound is almost always a combination of two things — paddle tension being way too light and the keyer weight set wrong. most cheap paddles come from the factory with almost zero tension on the contacts and your fingers end up basically resting on them the whole time which causes all kinds of double-hitting and sloppy spacing.

try tightening the tension screws on the paddle — usually they're little hex screws on the side or underneath. you want the paddle to spring back with a little bit of authority. not stiff exactly but it should feel like it actually wants to return to center. and then honestly, slow down a bit before you speed up. i know that sounds annoying to hear but cleaning up your fist at 8 wpm is way more useful than sloppy 12 wpm. the MFJ practice keyers are decent enough to learn on, dont let anyone talk you out of using it.

yeah same boat here not too long ago. one thing nobody told me that actually helped a ton was just listening to a lot of CW, like actually a lot. i had W1AW practice sessions on in the background while doing other stuff and eventually the rhythm just kind of sinks in and you start to hear when your own sending is off. also koch method if you havent tried it — theres a free app called lcwo.net that i used and it genuinely works even though it feels impossible the first week or two