so ive been at this for about four months now and im kind of stuck. started learning CW back in the spring mostly because i wanted to get on 40m during the evening and it just seemed like the thing to do. got up to about 5wpm pretty quick using the koch method with the G4FON trainer but now im just... stalled. im at maybe 8-9wpm on a good day and it feels like the gap between where i am and actually being able to ragchew at 20 is just enormous.

i know the usual advice is just keep at it, practice every day, dont count dits and dahs, etc. and im doing all that. been listening to W1AW code practice bulletins in the morning which helps a little. just wondering if anyone who went through this can tell me roughly how long it took them to go from beginner to actually comfortable on air. like was there a moment where it clicked or did it just slowly get easier. i feel like im missing something

honest answer? it took me about 18 months to feel genuinely comfortable at 20wpm for ragchewing, but i wasnt practicing every single day either. the jump from like 8 to 12 was honestly the hardest part for me, felt like i plateaued there forever. what finally helped was stopping the software practice and just getting on the air. like actually calling CQ on 40m at whatever speed i could manage and just dealing with the chaos of real QSOs. people are generally pretty patient especially if you send QRS in your exchange, most guys will slow right down for you.

also the thing nobody really tells you — your brain needs time off. if youre drilling every day and not improving, take two or three days completely away from it and come back. i know that sounds counterintuitive but it worked for me more than once. something about sleep consolidating the patterns or whatever. anyway dont give up, 20wpm is absolutely doable and once you get there it feels completely different from grinding through at 8.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, been at it since january and im hovering around 10-11wpm. one thing i started doing recently that seems to be helping is the Farnsworth method where you set the character speed high like 20wpm but put big gaps between the letters so you have time to think. the idea is your ear gets used to hearing fast characters even if the overall pace is slow. i read about it on here somewhere and figured id try it. feels weird at first but after a few weeks i think its working?? hard to tell sometimes

also started copying by hand instead of typing and for some reason that made a difference too, not sure why