So I tried a few times with trying to pickup CW.  Got a couple apps on the phone and online, but never got too far into it before losing interest.  So I decided putting money into a key would put some skin in the game to nudge me along.  As a result, I picked up this single arm paddle off Fleabay:



The seller stated the base had been re-sprayed by a previous owner and the seller put a new nameplate and finger piece on.  It's supposed to be upgraded with a jeweled pivot for whatever that's worth.  I have no idea how old it is but the rubber feet were hard as rocks and it would slide all over the desk.  $6 to Vibroplex for some new soft squishy feet and it stays firmly planted.

It really helped in kicking my interest up.  I've got the rig set to key at 16 WPM.  Right now any faster and I'm just too slow to get off the dits fast enough without sending extras.  Been using the LCWO.net classes and have about a dozen characters down.  Running at 20WPM for character speed with 6WPM farnsworth spacing.  Any faster and the wheels quickly fall off the bus.  

Decided to try sending some electrons into the coax last night and see if the RBN would spot me.  Sure enough, got my call sign picked up sending a couple test messages.  Cool beans!

My wife just looks as me half amused but my teen aged daughter thinks it's rather cool.  

The daughter keeps checking on my progress as she hears me practicing the receiving and the keying.  I told her I came up with something useful to send with my limited knowledge thus far.  I said to her if you are ever stranded on a deserted island, knowing Morse code can be very useful.  She watched the decoder running on the screen as I keyed the following:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hFa7bSFCwrCcL6FjSMKV62ET9-qtFMmt/view?usp=sharing

Cool! Keep at it, it does take more time than most people think it does. I had to struggle to get above 10 wpm. The Farnsworth method hadn't been discovered back then. Listening to the sound of each character is where it's at!
73,
Rob

Way to go! CW is fun and can give very good results with low power and limited equipment. Turn your power down to 5 Watts and be ready for some pleasant surprises.

You can find slow speed contacts on the Straight Key Century Club operating frequencies. Call or answer at a speed you're comfortable and the OP will (usually) slow down to the same speed.

For receiving practice W1AW sends practice transmissions several times daily. They also have online practice files.

you've got the radio tuned to the right part of the band for slower CW.

SKCC is centered at 7055, 3550, 14050, 10120 etc. Listen in and copy QSOs,  you'll get a feel for the basic info tranferred in a QSO

another freq range to listen is 7062, 14062 weekend mornings guys on SOTA peaks with QRP rigs

I'm a straight key fan but that vibroplex paddle you have is the exact thing I started with 45 years ago when I switched from straight key to keyer. (back when I was a teenager... teenage is a good age to start this hobby... hint hint to ur daughter.... )

if you hear me calling CQ SKCC feel free to answer even tho you're using the paddle.

enjoy CW!

Poole
.- .- ....- --.-

So I found that if I set the radio’s internal keyer to straight key I can simply use the paddle as a straight key from the dit side and if I set it to bug mode I can use the dah side as a straight key (dits are generated from the dit side as a real bug would). I’m guessing the SKCC would expect me to be on a straight key? Does a single paddle setup as described (a faux side swiper) count as a straight key?  Or do I need to cut a hacksaw blade and build a cootie?

I don't know about the "faux bug" mode. Interesting question.
You can use your Vibroplex as a sideswiper by jumpering the dit and dah sides together and setting the radio's mode to straight key.

Give SKCC a try, you might enjoy it. The monthly "sprints", the SKS and WES are somewhat like contests, but much more relaxed and laid back. There's also more info exchanged during the contact, rather than just "599 DE 5Y3GT".

If you want to give a straight key an inexpensive trial run, you could purchase a MFJ-550 for about $20. It's cheap and servicable as a starter key. In fact, we used them back when our club was conducting CW classes. I still have one of them that I use when testing rigs, and use it on the air occasionally.
A word of caution about keys, though -- they can be addictive. You're just liable to wind up cruising eBay looking for old ones to buy and restore and build up a substantial collection of them, some with an history.

Here's a key and sounder that was given to me when I got my Novice license. They were used on the Seaboard Air Line Railroad until their signaling system was modernized ater WW2.
 

This bug was given to me at the same time and was made in 1922.

If you're the outdoors type, SOTA and POTA might be of interest. CW QRP is a good match for them.

They're doing one of those today.   I heard the local club discussing it last night on 2m.  


Should be operating out of Vt, one park and one summit, two different sites.  

I have been doing tree trimming all day but just came in for lunch.  Might tune in and see if I can contact them.  (phone, not CW for me yet)


Did they use pack goats to haul gear to the summit?   This hobby might get really expensive if I need barn animals too.  Well if you have a nanny goat you can have milk in your summit coffee.  

There is a group doing SOTA near Plattevolle, Wi today. I Imagine you could catch them on 40m about now.

Was looking at doing that.  Was also considering picking up a straight key to try, but I already get occasional aches in my wrists/elbows and didn't want to increase the frequency of them.  Hence why I was thinking side swiping as the alternative.  

ETA: From the SKCC page (https://www.skccgroup.com/keypolicy.php): "Important. The sideswiper/cootie key resembles commonly available keyer paddles, but is wired differently. Keyer paddles can however be jumpered for use as a sideswiper, which would then be considered acceptable for SKCC purposes."  So jumpering my paddle as described will meet their requirements.  Would certainly like to try my hand at timing my own.  Of course making one out of a hacksaw blade just looks cool too.  Except maybe somehow using brass cartridge cases for some of the vertical uprights?  Maybe a use for those 308 Berdan primed cases for the uprights and some .22's for the horizontal contacts?

Been doing a fair amount of POTA activations myself.  A lot of fun working /P and working pileups.  Had a local NCA added to the POTA park list as well as activating a site that hadn't been activated since the beginning.  Even got a posse to roll with, The Three Amigos.

Side swipers are legal under SKCC rules.  They were developed for the reasons you have stated.
A lot of 'slow pokes', myself included, hang around 7.120 too (the old Novice section of the band).

ETA: See that  you replied already while I was working on mine.  I also use this ARRL site to get practice:  http://www.arrl.org/13-wpm-code-archive  There is a whole bunch of speeds there.

Something similar has been done by one of the SKCC members. He posted an image of it in one of his WES scoring sheets. It's been a while back, maybe 2 or so years.
You can find it if you're willing to spend some time searching their scoring portal.

DO NOT LOOK AT THE DOTS AND DASHES!

Listen instead.

I wish I could start over.

Yes, I've avoided looking over CW charts.  Everybody I've seen speaking of learning CW of late the most effective is Koch method with Farnsworth spacing, learn the sound of the letters not dots and dashes on a chart, and don't try to count the dits and dahs--again go by how they sound.  That last part is the hardest, trying not to count.

It's best to avoid learning in alphabetic order or sequential numbers. Learn 2 characters per day and at the end of the learning session, try to receive all previously learned letters and the 2 new ones. Learn numbers separately. Always include all previously learned characters when practicing at the end of each training session. This is how I was taught in the military. It was VERY effective.

Group letters in the following order:
E,T
M,I
O,S
K,R
U,D
Q,Y
W,G
F,L and so on. Notice the order? They sound somewhat opposite. Not all though, because there are only 26 letters in Latin alphabet we use. Other languages have more letters hence more CW sequences assigned to it.

Same with numbers:
0,5
1,9
2,8
3,7
4,6

Also, once you copy the letter characters, try to pronounce them phonetically like Alpha, November etc. That is if you are new to ham radio and haven't learned the proper phonetics.

The LCWO site doesn't use that order of characters by default, but I guess I could change it out.  So far I'm on lesson 9 of 40.  I've also picked up a couple extra characters as well.  Enough that I can send "TEST TEST TEST DE CALLSIGN CALLSIGN CALLSIGN" and sure enough, I got spotted by the RBN.  Brought power down to 5W from 20W and still did 870 miles with an SNR of 14dB. (ETA: now 1100 miles at 15dB)  Pretty cool.  

I've noticed I can send easier than I can receive.  I need to sit and think about what it was I just heard and what letter it was.  Sending seems easier though, I see the letter and it comes out pretty easy.  RBN had me at 17WPM.  However, on the receive I need lots of space between those letters for my brain to decode.  I'm guessing it's just a matter of time and exposure.  It's like me going to a Mexican restaurant and telling the lady, "Dos tacos pescado y dos tacos camarones."  She then says something back in machine-gun Spanish that leaves me with a blank look on my face.

Practice, practice, practice.
Getting it down on paper requires building muscle memory, just as in playing a musical instrument, shooting or any sport. Back when telegraphy was in wide use, high speed telegraphers would copy down what they heard without realizing (or caring) what was sent. They used a specialized typewriter called a "mill". LINK

Learning to "head copy" will alleviate a lot of this, and is good to practice anyway as that's the way you'll me running most of your contacts. CW becomes a second language and you'll just jot down notes, the same as if you were carrying on a SSB or FM contact.

I learned to head copy by relaxing in my recliner while listening to W1AW's practice and bulletin transmissions. Now you can do it at your convenience by using the ARRL practice files.

Alternating between head and paper copy will help some while others will do better by becoming comfortable with paper copying before starting to learn to head copy.

Ha! I totally get that.  

I do ok with the basic ham whisperer videos.  Not a 1/3 of the way though through.  I repeat lessons to firm them up instead of pushing forward.  

My scanner has a local repeater that blasts a CW station ID about every 15 minutes.  I cannot make a thing out of it at that speed.  Barely perceive the  character breaks.

I watched that video and FWIW, it is very hard to type with two fingers faster than 20 wpm unless it's just numbers.
You have to learn to touch type to be able to copy at faster speeds.
In the Army we learned touch typing first, then Morse.
It's weird, because unlike touch typing that a secretary does where it's going from your eyes to your fingers, it's going from your ears to your fingers.
When I later went to college and had to do a lot of typing of papers, it was a struggle to relearn proper touch typing.

@Frank_B

OP, you got me enthused, and I've been playing with an app called Morse Mania.  

Wife made me wear a headset, but it is pretty logical the way it works thru the letters.

Check out Long Island CW club they have zoom classes every day and is a great club.

I never heard about touch typing but I never learned to type with all fingers anyway. I only use 4 fingers to type but can't do this without looking at the keyboard.
Typing wasn't even taught when I went to school and later to the university. Typing was for girls who wanted to be secretaries. That's what they did all day long. Those electrical typewriters were really noisy! We called them - woodpeckers.

In the military, we only wrote the received messages by hand but we all learned calligraphy in first grade. I doubt we'd be allowed to use typewriters. Pen (or pensil) and paper is a lot more reliable and can be carried in a pocket. Complexity equals failure. That was the mentality in the military.

How fast were the transmissions that you copied?

Any updates OP?

Still trucking along with the LCWO.net site.  Copy speed is still slow and takes some thought to recognize the letters.  Trying to listen to slow 5 WPM CW is painfully slow, but listening to the characters at 20WPM with the slow spacing works for me but nobody sends like that.

Biggest hurdle right now is just being so blasted tired after getting home from work.  Makes it hard to focus and sort out what's going on.

True, nobody sends that way, but it IS recognized as a good way to learn.  There is a name for it but I can't remember what it is.

Part of the problem people develop in the beginning is counting dots or dashes and then transcribing that to a letter in their head.  If you learn from the beginning at a speed that is really difficult for you to count dots and dashes then you start to recognize the entire CHARACTER which is by far the best way to learn Morse code.  Then you start to slowly reduce the spacing and before you know it 20wpm is actually readable for you.

You're doing it right.  Stick with it.

Yep, also, try doing 2 ea. 10-15 min sessions/ day. No more until you get used to the new work your brain is doing.
73,
Rob

This!  Many short sessions instead of fewer long sessions was the key (pun intended) for me.
Another trick is to translate road signs into CW while driving to and from work. Don't try to do the whole sign (obviously), just a few words that you can read at a glance.

So I'm moving into lesson 17 on the LCWO site.  Brings me through  the characters "K M U R E S N A P T L W I . J Z = F"  

Funny how some stuff I hear but I'm just like, uhhhh.   For some reason R and L just give me fits.  It's like I hear them but don't hear them.  

The word practice on the site has been somewhat more entertaining.  The standard code practice is groups of 5 random characters.  At least with words if I miss something and move along I might be able to figure it out if not a simple replay of the word works, whereas the standard code group replays the entire string of groups which is about 2 minutes long.  A long way to listen through if it's just a couple characters near the end I got behind on.

Thanks to all for the encouragement.  Can be tough at time buckling down to get the sessions in.

Sounds like you're making good progress. As your brain becomes more accustomed to decyphering the short and long sounds, your proficiency will build more rapicly.