How to learn Morse code by ear

Why by ear, not from a chart

A chart teaches you to see a letter and translate it: dot, dash, that is A. Real Morse goes by faster than you can count the signals, so that lookup step is what holds a listener back. The goal is to hear di-dah and simply know it is A, the way you read a word without spelling it.

The idea is old. In a 1936 study of how radio operators learn, the German psychologist Ludwig Koch had beginners start with only two characters, sent at a steady pace of about 60 characters a minute, roughly 12 words per minute. A new character was added only when errors on the current set stayed at 10 percent or less. Koch also tried a faster start, at 100 characters a minute, and set it aside (Koch 1936, English translation).

Keep the letters fast and the gaps long

Two speeds matter. Character speed is how fast the signals inside a letter go by. Overall speed is how many words fit into a minute. Farnsworth timing keeps the characters at the higher speed and stretches only the silence between letters and words, so you hear each letter's real rhythm and still have time to recognize it.

Speed is measured with the word PARIS: with the gap after it, it is exactly 50 units long, so one unit lasts 1200 ÷ WPM milliseconds. The ARRL standard by Jon Bloom, KE3Z, defines the stretched gaps. With character speed c and overall speed s, the time added per word is ta = (60c − 37.2s) ÷ (s × c) seconds; the gap between letters is 3ta ÷ 19 and the gap between words is 7ta ÷ 19. ARRL code practice keeps characters at 18 WPM and uses Farnsworth spacing below that speed (ARRL, QEX, April 1990).

Here is what that formula gives with letters at 18 WPM:

Hear the difference on the word PARIS. The first plays at a plain 18 WPM; the second keeps the same letters and slows the whole word to 8 WPM with longer gaps.

The gaps themselves follow the fixed proportions of ITU-R M.1677-1: one dot inside a letter, three between letters, seven between words. The alphabet guide shows them on the chart.

The order of the letters

There is no single correct order. The app introduces Latin letters in pairs, starting with the two shortest codes, and brings digits in pairs too:

1. ET
2. AN
3. RK
4. SO
5. IM
6. DU
7. GW
8. LF
9. BV
10. HY
11. CP
12. JQ
13. XZ

1. 16
2. 27
3. 38
4. 49
5. 50

Each new pair is mixed with every letter you already know, so the earlier letters keep coming back while the new ones settle in.

A five-minute session

1. Meet the new letter. Hear it a few times and say its rhythm aloud: A is di-dah.
2. Pick it by ear. Listen and choose the letter from a few options. In the first lessons the code is on screen; later it is hidden and you only hear it.
3. Send it back. Tap the rhythm yourself on a key, short for a dot and long for a dash. Sending trains the same rhythm from the other side.
4. Mix it in. The new letter joins every letter you know, and a letter you miss comes back two or three questions later.
5. Move on at 90 percent. When nine answers in ten are right, the next pair opens.

Short daily sessions are easier to keep than long ones, which is why the lessons in the app are built to take about five minutes. You can try the rhythm of any word right now in the translator.

Common mistakes

• Counting the dots. If you catch yourself counting, the letters are too slow. Raise the character speed and lengthen the gaps instead.
• Learning the whole chart first. It feels like progress, but it builds the lookup habit that listening practice then has to replace.
• Long sessions. Attention fades and mistakes pile up. Stop while it still feels easy.
• Writing every signal down. Write the letter, not the dots and dashes.

Do you need Morse code for a radio license?

Not in the United States. The FCC removed the last Morse code exam, a 5 words-per-minute test for the General and Amateur Extra classes, effective 23 February 2007, so no US amateur license class requires it any more (Federal Register, 72 FR 3081). Learning it is now a choice, which makes a method you enjoy matter even more. If you want to know the one signal everyone should recognize, read SOS in Morse code.