so i've been licensed for about 6 years now and always told myself i'd learn CW eventually and just... never did. finally signed up for one of those Learn CW Online courses and i'm a few weeks in, copying at maybe 10-12 wpm on a good day which feels slow but whatever, gotta start somewhere.

anyway the question is about paddles. right now i'm just using a cheap single lever paddle i grabbed off ebay for like $18 and it works but something feels off with the tension or the spacing or both, i'm not even sure. my sends sound kind of mushy and i dont know if its me or the paddle. been eyeing the Begali Simplex or maybe a Vibroplex original but those prices are kind of hard to swallow when im not even sure i'll stick with it long term.

is there a mid-range paddle that's actually decent without being $300+? or should i just mess with adjusting what i have first before spending anything. also open to thoughts on iambic vs single lever, i've heard arguments both ways and honestly i'm still confused about when iambic actually matters.

the cheap ebay paddles are usually fine once you get the gap and tension dialed in, most people dont realize how much those adjustments matter until they've spent time on a really good paddle. grab a business card and use it to set your gap on both sides - you want it snug but not binding. tension wise, go lighter than you think, new operators almost always run too heavy.

that said if you want to step up without dropping Begali money, take a look at the MFJ-564 or honestly a used Bencher BY-1. Benchers show up on QRZ classifieds pretty regularly for $50-70 and they're solid workhorses. I've been using mine for probably 15 years. For iambic - the squeeze keying stuff honestly matters more once you're faster, at 10-15 wpm you'll probably barely notice. just focus on sending clean characters right now and the rest sorts itself out.

same boat as you actually, started LCWO about 4 months ago and just hit 15 wpm copy last week which felt like a huge deal lol. i ended up getting a Morse Express (now Vibroplex) single lever trainer paddle and its been fine. not fancy but adjustable enough that i could get it feeling decent.

one thing that helped me a ton that nobody really told me early on - try to send stuff on the air even when you feel like you're not ready. there's a group called the Straight Key Century Club and slow net contacts at like 5-10 wpm are totally normal and people are super patient. hearing your own sends reflected back in how people copy you is weirdly useful for figuring out whats going wrong.