so ive been trying to get back into CW after a long break, maybe 8 or 9 years off from it, and my sending has just gone completely to mush. Im using an old Bencher BY-1 paddle into a Winkeyer USB and the dits and dahs sound fine when i listen to the sidetone but when i record myself and play it back it sounds... i dunno, rushed? like my dahs arent long enough or something. the spacing between characters is all over the place too.

i set the keyer to about 15 wpm thinking id ease back into it but even at that speed im making a mess. is this mostly a practice thing or could my paddle tension be set wrong? the tension feels pretty light to me but i havent really messed with it since i dug it out of the box. any tips from people who had to rebuild their fist after time away from it would be appreciated

totally normal after a long break, dont be too hard on yourself. your muscle memory just needs time to come back. i had the same thing happen after a couple years off and it took maybe 3-4 weeks of daily practice before things started clicking again.

the tension thing is worth checking though. if the gap between the paddle contacts is too wide you end up overreaching and that messes with your timing, especially for dits at higher speeds. on the BY-1 you can adjust both the gap and the tension independently so id play around with it a bit. i like mine set fairly snug with a narrow gap but thats just personal preference, you kinda have to find what works for your hand.

one thing that really helped me was going way slower than i thought i needed to, like 10 or 12 wpm, and just focusing on clean characters before worrying about speed. G4FON's Koch trainer is free and works great for this. the temptation is always to push speed before youre ready

yeah the Winkeyer has a setting for weight adjustment too that a lot of people forget about - you can bias the dit/dah ratio slightly which might help if your dahs are sounding short. i think in the software its under keyer settings somewhere. just something to look at if youve already messed with the paddle itself and it still sounds off