so i passed my general a few months back and everybody kept telling me to learn CW even though its not required anymore, and i kind of got bit by the bug after listening to some QSOs on 40m late at night. theres something about it that just sounds cool to me, hard to explain.

anyway i grabbed a cheap single-lever paddle from amazon, nothing fancy, and i downloaded morse trainer on my phone. ive been doing the Koch method for like 3 weeks now and im somewhere around 10-12 characters in. the thing im struggling with is that when i actually try to key something out on the paddle it sounds nothing like what i hear in my head. like the timing is just a mess. im using a MFJ keyer thats built into my radio (its an IC-7300) and i played with the speed and weight settings a little but honestly i dont really know what im doing there.

is this normal at this stage or am i doing something fundamentally wrong? also should i even be using a paddle this early or should i go back to a straight key first? ive heard both arguments and im confused. just want to make sure im not building bad habits

totally normal, dont stress about it. the disconnect between hearing code in your head and actually sending it cleanly with a paddle is something pretty much everyone goes through. your brain knows what it wants but your hand hasnt caught up yet and thats just a muscle memory thing that takes time.

on the straight key vs paddle debate -- honestly its one of those things people argue about forever. i learned on a straight key first and im glad i did because it forced me to really feel the rhythm of each character, dits and dahs, before letting a keyer do the timing for me. but ive also seen people who went straight to a paddle and turned out just fine. if youre already 3 weeks into Koch with the paddle id probably just stick with it at this point rather than starting over.

one thing that helped me early on was slowing waaaay down -- like embarrassingly slow, maybe 5 wpm -- and just sending random 5-character groups over and over without thinking about words. just focus on clean sending, not speed. the IC-7300 keyer is decent enough to not be your problem here, and make sure your paddle tension and gap arent set too light or youll get all kinds of accidental contacts. takes a bit of fiddling to get it where it feels right for your hand.

im kind of in the same boat as you, started CW about 6 months ago. what helped me a ton was actually recording myself sending and then listening back. its kind of painful to hear how sloppy your fist is lol but it really shows you where the timing is falling apart. most of the time for me it was my dahs were too short and i was rushing between characters.

also the weight adjustment on the keyer made a bigger difference than i expected once i understood what it actually does. took me a while to figure that out.