I don’t think this question has been asked recently.
I’m currently stuck at 14 WPM and even then I’m not doing too well. I’d like to improve my morse speed. What have folk found most effective for them, be it tools, techniques, practice regimes, to improve their speed.
Thanks, Mark.
M5TEA
Hi Mark,
The most effective practice regime I know about is to join a CW Academy course. I am no expert in either Morse or Morse learning, but lcwo.net is a very popular tool for both learning the letters and improving speed. Just be careful not to make yourself dependent on the keyboard to decode CW.
i use the app morse mania but i’m still trying to learn cw. id love to be at 14wpm lol. character speed is like 20-25wpm but the thinking time to figure out each letter is around 3wpm atm 
When I was studying for my Class 1 license upgrade (around this time last year was when I passed the test), I primarily used Morse Mania which is a great Android app. It isn’t free though but the Pro version, which costs about £8 or so, I still use daily just to go through the alphabet, numbers and punctuation plus some head copy.
If ever I could put my hand to my heart and say an app was worth buying the pro version for, it’s Morse Mania. You can even connect a key to your blower or tablet and use a real key with the app. You need a little USB-C adapter from Ali Express for it but it works a treat. You can connect it to anything e.g. a computer and use your real key. Those are about £10 shipped. Well worth it for stuff like V Band and the Web app from Ham Radio Duo too (I forget the URL now).
Other than that I have two books:
Also don’t forget Morsle is a great little game to play too!
Joining a club can be handy. I’m not a member of any local club(s) but am with the IRTS and NSWL. I also joined FISTS recently. I see a lot of positive feedback about CWOps and might join them soon too.
Other than that I just stick a dummy load on to a radio and practice when I can. There’s some good YouTube videos too. Ham Radio Duo do little shorts (I dislike YT Shorts usually but this is an exception) called Becky’s Practice Message which are really good to try.
My head copy is where I suffer. Send speed though I’ve gotten reasonably alright at, about 22wpm but I would never send at that speed because my head copy is more like 12-15wpm in real world operation.
Last tip I could give (if my tips amount for anything as I am a beginner!) is to give SWL a try and listen to QSO’s to try and head copy those for practice. I take a little Tecsun PL-330 out with me sometimes, or an Eton Elite Executive. Usually handy when listening to SSB with them. If you don’t fancy heading out with a radio, chuck a wire out the window and clip it to your radio. That can usually reel in a better signal.
Hope this ramble is of some help! Oh and lastly, don’t forget to do some CW on 270! 
Hi Mark,
You can try this one
73, Éric F5JKK
Mark,
I find that varying the speed of the practice material, if you can, is essential to improving copy speed. increase the speed beyond your comfort level, so if your comfortable copy speed is 15-16, increase it to say 18 wpm. After finding that too difficult for a few minutes, reduce to 16 wpm, it is much easier then. After doing that for a few days you find you can copy more of the higher speed.
So take it up to 20 and reduce to 18 after trying the higher speed for a few minutes.
My theory about why this works is that the higher speed challenges you to reduce your inter-letter processing speed. After struggling to copy the higher speed, you find the slightly lower speed much easier. It’s all about processing each letter in the available time and if the time is too short it puts pressure on you.
With enough receiving practice you can write the letter received while you hear the next one, and so on. But there is no way you can force your brain to receive and write at the same time, it has to come with practice. You are learning a new language and making new pathways in the brain. They will form, in time.
good luck
Andrew vk1da
You’ve already overcome the biggest obstacle: key fright.
If you find it structured learning in a peer pressure environment congenial, can commit to regular attendance and assignments you’ll probably gonna benefit from CW Academy and the likes (I would stay away from those online clubs asking for money).
I don’t have the luxury of free time during the week, so I found LCWO.net very helpful. Practice every day and consistently push yourself just over the speed you’re comfortable with, you’ll make plenty of mistakes and it might be discouraging at first, but you’re going to improve your copying skills eventually.
Sending is rarely the major obstacle to progression, unless you have specific issues with motor skills and dexterity.
Have a look here - i used it and it did help:
73 Wolf
Ditto CW (Android) – lots of in-built practise material and real callsigns. You can import your own text strings.
Ham Morse (iOS) – lots of in-built practise material, rubberstamp QSOs. Plays news headlines from various news outlets.
Morse Runner (Windows) – realistic on-air environment with simultaneous chasers, QRN, QSB, etc [all selectable]. Checks your QWERTY keyboard entries and scores your performance. It’s really aimed at contesters but I pretend the 3-digit sequence numbers you receive and type are really RSTs.
News Headlines in Morse Code at NN-wpm (NN= 15, 20, 25, …] (weekly podcast)
‘A little and often’ is the learning strategy: 15 minutes 3 times a week - no more. In a few months you’d be at 20-25wpm.
It’s not just about the Morse. Your conscious brain needs practice with translating your thoughts into the spelling of the sentence you want to send whilst your subconscious brain simultaneously converts the characters into key movements. So you also want regular [10-20 minute] weekly CW QSOs with ‘friendly’ locals, e.g. on 2m. You only need to ask.
Headcopying is great for long ragchews - saves writing everything down and getting writer’s cramp. But I haven’t found much use for typical SOTA QSOs. No point in headcopying the stuff you want to write down for the log, i.e. callsign, signal report, summit reference and name. And you’re probably already headcopying the small subset of abbreviations that SOTA uses (e.g. ga, gm, ref, s2s, tks, tu, 73).
If it;s only for activations, Morserunner will do. If it’s for conversation, CWOps classes.
73, Martin - PE1EEC
Are you stuck at true 14wpm, or are you using Farnsworth spacing with the individual letters sent faster.
If you’ve been truly stuck at 14wpm it might be worth starting from scratch again at 25wpm. That is, start with a single letter and then build up again using the koch method.
Thanks for all the info so far. I completed a QSO at lunchtime and actually my head copy speed is more like 12 wpm realistically. I haven’t been practicing for the past couple of years, so need to get into a pattern, including real-world QSOs. I had a QSO early this morning and that was more like 18 WPM sent and I had no chance decoding anything other than the callsign.
In past summers or when the WX is OK I’ve gone chasing SOTA and other CW activations at lunchtime and tried hard not to consult spotter apps except to confirm the copy of the callsign. I have the luxury now of being able to QSO from my QTH, given a combination of the excellent noise cancelling abilities of the FTDX-5000MP, a possibly slightly less noisy QTH and the installation of a ground loop receive antenna.
I am a lifetime member of the Long Island CW Club so will try and get some of their appropriate group sessions in the calendar moving forward.
I have no issues sending at any speed up to around 20 WPM - it’s all about the head copy.
Seems like I should be making better use of my CW friendly callsign moving forward.
Regards, Mark. M5TEA
I have used Morse Runner in the past and it is excellent. I’ve just installed Ham Morse so will try and use that too, thanks for the info.
Yes, I know 
There is already a ton of great advice here, Just wanted to add few things that I found very helpful in my CW journey.
1 - Morse Code Ninja https://www.youtube.com/c/KurtZoglmann
This personally helped me the most.. I listen to these videos on my commute to work, on a walk, or out for a bike ride. I use the Morse Code Ninja content daily to help continue to build / reinforce my CW skills. I like to start out with single letters and numbers as a warm up, then move into words or and callsigns.
Also, you can download the files from his website and keep them on your phone vs using youtube. There are all kinds of great videos at various speeds which is super helpful.
2 - There are lots of great training tools and website. Here are two that haven’t been mentioned that work well.
https://longislandcwclub.org - The Long Island CW has a great training tool on their site and they host zoom classes pretty much all day everyday. I personally didn’t find the classes super helpful, since I was already putting in a lot of work on my own. But everyone learns differently.
https://morsewalker.com/ - Morse walker is a fun site to use and not very complicated.
3 - Consistency.
My approach was that I’m building both a mental and physical skill. Just like anything else, consistent time in the saddle is what will help you improve. As others have said, start with 10-15 mins a few times a day and build from there. After a few months you’ll be super surprised how far you’ve come.
4 - Just get on the air.
I know it might be easier said than done. Personally, I spent a few months using all the apps and websites, but it wasn’t till I regularly got on the air that I began to really flourish.
This reply is aimed at any less-experienced CW learners …
Everyone finds sending easier than receiving and there in lies the problem for learners. They get into a CW QSO sending faster than they can receive, and usually the other op matches that speed, and the beginner can’t cope. I’ve had many a QSO with less experienced CW ops and it was painfully obvious that they didn’t understand the simple question I asked even when repeated.
So, resist the temptation and devote most of your learning time to improving your receiving speed and robustness, e.g. ability to decode with QRN, QRM, QSB, different sending styles, and to learning the many standard amateur abbreviations. Several of the Morse apps I quote include them.
It has been useful listening to @MM0VPM Alan activating High Rigg G/LD-044 this afternoon. He’s about the same speed as me running at 12 wpm. Once I’d worked out that I still had my rig in split mode (doh!) we had a nice exchange, matching his speed and easy for me.
I need to get brave again and activate QRS CW SOTA! Lately I’ve been responding to CW activators when on a summit but not activating myself. You need a thick skin that’s for sure!
Mark.
Try here Matt Morse training tools and regimes
I’m fine decoding faster morse as long as there is enough Farnsworth spacing for me to complete the decode before the next letter. Probably fine with the character speed being anything upto 18-20 wpm. Without the spacing I quickly experience buffer overflow.
Mark.
Sorry I’ve ended up replying to the wrong thread too, back to the main thread…
And now all back in the correct thread.