so ive been trying to learn CW for about 3 months now and i finally got a cheap paddle off ebay, hooked it up to my radio's built in keyer and... it sounds terrible when i send. like the dits and dahs are all mushed together or sometimes there's way too much space between elements. i cant figure out if its me or the keyer settings or the paddle itself.

im practicing with the Koch method on lcwo.net and my receive is actually getting decent, around 15wpm copy on good days. but when i try to send even simple stuff it just doesnt sound right. my elmer listened to me once and said my paddle tension is probably too loose but i adjusted it and it still feels weird. is this just a practice thing or should i look at the keyer speed settings? im running like 18wpm but maybe thats too fast for where im at. the paddle is one of those no-name ones, dual lever.

yeah that mismatch between receive and send is super common, dont get discouraged by it. receiving is almost always ahead of sending because your hand hasnt caught up with your ear yet. the muscle memory for paddle work takes a surprising amount of time to build, way longer than people expect.

one thing i'd look at - 18wpm might actually be working against you right now. some folks swear by learning to send at the same speed you're copying, but others (including me) found it better to slow WAY down when practicing sending, like 10-12wpm, and really focus on clean element timing before speeding back up. also check your iambic mode setting, mode A vs mode B behaves differently and some people click with one but not the other. took me about 6 months before my fist started sounding halfway decent and i was a nervous wreck every time i called CQ. it does get better.

the cheap paddles can be a real pain honestly. ive gone through a couple no-name ones and the contact gap adjustment is just so finicky that you spend more time tweaking than practicing. not saying you need to drop money on a Begali or anything but even a mid range one like a Vibroplex makes a difference. that said my first year i was on a no-name too and eventually got decent so its definitely doable.

one thing that helped me was recording myself and then listening back. brutal but useful, you hear things in the recording you totally miss while you're sending.