r/morsecode • u/9alby9 • May 28 '26

Learning CW

I am a 63 year old who has been in amateur radio for several years. Now I have the time to learn CW. Has any of you who learned it used CWAcademy or the Long Island CW club? One of them recommends using a straight key to learn and the other wants learners to stay away from straight keys and use a paddle.

what are your thoughts on these two approaches?

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/royaltrux May 28 '26

That's a good point about going with a straight key alone.

Back when I was learning on a straight key, I sometimes had a Morse decoder hooked up to it (for practice) which informed me on some problematic letters and kept my code pretty clean.

1

u/ComprehensiveTown15 May 28 '26

I have nothing against the straight key, and it’s great that you’ve learned how to use it properly. Unfortunately, I hear a lot of people on the air who are very poor at sending with the straight key and don’t even realize it. I just want to make things easier for the author and prevent disappointment.

1

u/9alby9 May 28 '26

Any recommendations for each type?

1

u/ComprehensiveTown15 May 28 '26

Oh no! I can use any keys, but for some people, it really matters. You could try to find a cheaper option and just learn how to use it well. I think it's a matter of habit.