so i've been licensed for about 4 years now and i always told myself i'd learn CW eventually but kept putting it off. well i finally started doing the lcwo.net lessons a few months ago and i'm up to maybe 15wpm on a good day receiving, sending is a whole other story though

i picked up a cheap single lever paddle from amazon just to have something to practice on and honestly i think its probably holding me back a little? like the tension and spacing feel kind of off and i have to really concentrate to not get a bunch of dits i didnt mean to send. my keyer is built into my radio (ic-7300) so at least that part is sorted

my actual question is - at what point does it make sense to spend real money on a better paddle. i dont want to drop $200+ on a beginner mistake but i also wonder if struggling with a bad paddle is making my sending worse than it needs to be. anyone been through this

oh man i went through exactly this about two years ago. the cheap amazon paddles are not all terrible but the contact gap adjustment is usually really finicky and the magnetic return tension is either way too stiff or way too loose with not much middle ground. i spent like three months fighting mine before finally getting a Begali Simplex and it was kind of a revelation, i could actually focus on the code instead of wrestling with the hardware

that said i dont think you need to jump straight to the expensive stuff. a Bencher BY-1 or BY-2 runs maybe $80-90 and a lot of people use those their whole CW career without complaint. i know guys with 40+ years of cw time on a bencher who wouldn't trade it. if your budget is tight that'd be where id look first before going full exotic. the key thing is solid feel, positive contacts, and being able to set the gap small without it feeling mushy

also - and this might not be what you want to hear - 15wpm receiving but struggling sending is totally normal at your stage. the sending usually catches up but it takes a while for your hand to sort of internalize the rhythm. just keep at it

i'm kind of in the same boat as you actually so i can't give great advice on the paddle question but one thing that really helped my sending was slowing the keyer speed WAY down and just doing random 5 letter groups for like 20 minutes a day. not actual words, just random groups so you cant cheat by guessing. my elmers kept telling me slow down and i kept ignoring them and my sending was a mess lol

also have you tried the straight key at all? some people say going back and forth between straight key and paddle helps with rhythm. i tried it for a month and it did seem to help a bit but i know not everyone agrees on that