so i've been a tech for about two years and just upgraded to general last month and i told myself i was gonna learn CW even though its not required anymore because honestly it just seems like the coolest thing and i want to be able to ragchew on 40m someday without needing a keyboard in front of me

anyway i picked up a Vibroplex paddle at a hamfest last weekend, older one but the guy said it was working fine and it feels really solid. also grabbed a cheap keyer kit off amazon that i havent fully assembled yet. my question is really just... where do i even start. do i learn to send first or receive first, and does it matter? ive been using the LCWO website a little bit for receive practice but my brain just cant keep up even at like 5 wpm. someone told me to learn at 20 wpm with farnsworth spacing and someone else told me to just go slow. im getting contradictory advice everywhere and honestly feeling a little overwhelmed

also not sure if the paddle i got is adjusted right, the contacts seem a little far apart maybe? theres a tiny gap on both sides. any tips appreciated, im determined to actually learn this one

congrats on the paddle, Vibroplex is solid gear and a hamfest find is even better. okay so the contact gap thing - you really want it pretty close, like just barely a hair of space, enough that it doesn't close by itself but closes with almost no pressure. if its too far apart you'll be working harder than you need to and your timing will suffer. most paddles have a tension spring adjustment too so play with that until it feels natural for your hand, everyone's a little different there.

on the learning question, i'd say the Farnsworth method people are talking about is legit. the idea is you hear characters at full speed - like 15 or 20 wpm - but with long spaces between them so you have time to write it down. the reason is if you start at 5 wpm you end up counting dits and dahs instead of hearing the character as a sound and you have to unlearn that later. Koch method on LCWO is good, just stick with it even when its frustrating, which it will be.

for sending, honestly i wouldnt even hook up to a radio for a while. just practice into a speaker or monitor with your keyer and get the muscle memory going. the characters will start sounding right to you and you'll know when something is off before anyone else tells you.

im in almost the exact same boat haha, upgraded in the spring and been grinding away at CW for a few months now. one thing that helped me way more than i expected was just listening to slow speed nets on the air, like W1AW code practice or some of the QRS nets on 40 and 80m. something about hearing real signals with real fists sending it clicked for me differently than the computer stuff. also some guys on there will actually slow way down if you tell them youre learning which is really cool

dont get discouraged if it feels impossible at first, i think i spent like three weeks feeling like my brain was broken and then one day letters just started coming through. weird how it works