I’ve now managed another 2 CW QSOs, this time both with G4 stations in the UK, both stations were very helpful and understanding and responded to my CQ calls at the speed I’d called.
One thing I have struggled with is QSB, on both occasions I had booming signals one minute and pretty much silence the next which made it super tricky to copy at times, I’m not sure if that’s an issue with the 40m band or just recent propagation.
It has definitely already got much easier since the first QSO, I think getting past the shock of hearing a response to the CQ and being prepared for that and knowing what I’m going to respond helps.