so ive been thinking about getting into CW for a while now and i finally decided to just go for it but i honestly have no idea where to start. like do i just sit there listening to random QSOs and hope my brain figures it out eventually or is there some method that actually works

i tried one of those apps for maybe 20 minutes and gave up because it felt like nothing was sticking. not sure if im doing something wrong or if its just supposed to feel impossible at the beginning. ive heard people mention the koch method before but i dont really understand how it works or if its actually better than anything else

also is there like a target speed i should be aiming for just to have a basic QSO, i know 5wpm used to be the license requirement but thats not a thing anymore so im not sure what counts as functional these days

the koch method is honestly the way to go if you want something structured. the idea is you start with just two characters at full speed - like 20wpm - and you drill those until you can copy them reliably, then you add a third character, then a fourth, and so on. the whole point is your brain learns the sounds as sounds instead of counting dots and dashes which is what trips most beginners up

lcwo.net is free and does exactly this, its a bit bare bones looking but it works. i think i spent maybe 3-4 months doing 15-20 minutes a day before i felt like i could kinda follow a slow QSO. the key thing everyone says is short daily sessions beat long occasional sessions by a mile, your brain needs the repetition spread out not crammed

for a usable speed id say somewhere around 10-12wpm you can start having real contacts, just post on the slow speed CW nets and people are super patient. dont wait till you feel ready though because you never will

yeah i went through this same thing like two years ago. honestly the app thing didnt work for me either until i found one called Morse Mania which felt a little more game-like and kept me going longer than the others. im still not great but i can do maybe 12wpm on a good day if the other op has decent fist

one thing nobody told me that helped a lot was just leaving on W1AW code practice in the background sometimes while i was doing other stuff, not actively trying to copy just letting it wash over me. no idea if thats scientifically valid but it felt like it helped my ear get used to the rhythm of it