so ive been a tech for like 3 years and just upgraded to general a few months ago and i told myself id actually learn CW even though its not required anymore. been using the G4FON software to practice receiving and honestly its going pretty well, im up to about 12wpm copy on a good day. but the sending side is where i keep getting frustrated.

i picked up a cheap set of paddles off ebay, not sure of the brand honestly the label wore off, and im using the keyer built into my IC-7300. the squeeze keying thing keeps tripping me up. like i know in theory how it works, dit on one side dah on the other, but whenever i try to send anything faster than maybe 8wpm i start getting weird runs of dits or dahs that i didnt mean to send. is this a technique thing or could it be my paddle tension or spacing? or both?

also should i even bother with iambic mode or just set it to mode A and forget about the squeeze stuff for now? i feel like im fighting the keyer instead of working with it.

totally normal to feel that way starting out, dont get discouraged. the squeeze keying thing takes a while to really click in your muscle memory. i actually switched to mode A (some people call it iambic A) for probably my first year of serious CW and it helped a lot because mode B can produce that extra element you werent expecting if you release at the wrong time.

the tension and spacing on cheap paddles can really make a difference though. if the contacts are too light or the gap is too small youll be sending stuff you didnt intend to. try tightening up the tension a little and make sure the gap on both sides feels consistent, like the dit side shouldnt feel different from the dah side. you might not be able to fix it perfectly if the paddle quality is low but its worth messing with.

honestly my biggest advice is slow down even more when you practice sending. like painfully slow. 5wpm if you have to. your brain needs time to think the letter, then move the paddle, before it becomes automatic. most people try to jump to operating speed too fast and the sloppiness gets baked in.

yeah the iambic squeeze took me forever too. i read somewhere that a lot of contesters who have been doing CW for decades actually dont really use true squeeze keying that much, they mostly do single lever style even with paddles. so dont feel like youre doing it wrong if you ignore that feature for now.

one thing that helped me was practicing with a straight key for a bit before going back to the paddle. sounds old fashioned but it really made me think about the rhythm of each character instead of just squeezing and hoping. i still use my old J-38 sometimes just to keep the feel for it.