- Translator
- Alphabet
Morse code alphabet
International Morse code writes every letter, number and punctuation mark as a short pattern of dots and dashes. A dash lasts three dots; the gaps between signals, letters and words last one, three and seven dots.
Tap a tile to hear the letter at 18 words per minute. The words under each letter say its rhythm aloud: “di” is a dot inside a letter, “dit” a dot at its end, and “dah” a dash.
Letters A to Z
The 26 Latin letters use one to four signals each. E and T have the shortest codes, a single dot and a single dash, while letters such as Q, Y and J need four signals with three of them dashes.
Numbers 0 to 9
Every digit has exactly five signals. From 1 to 5 the code starts with dots and fills up with dashes; from 6 to 0 it starts with dashes. So 1 is one dot and four dashes, 5 is five dots, 6 is one dash and four dots, and 0 is five dashes.
Punctuation
These are the punctuation marks in ITU-R M.1677-1, the international standard for Morse code. Most of them have six signals, so they are easy to tell apart from letters by length.
The ITU table has no exclamation mark, semicolon, underscore, dollar sign or ampersand. Codes for them exist in some national and amateur traditions, but a receiver who follows the international table may not recognize them. The multiplication sign × is sent with the same code as the letter X.
Service signals
Some signals are sent as one character with no gap inside and stand for a whole message. M.1677-1 defines these service signals for operators:
The distress signal SOS is the best known of them. It came from the 1906 Berlin radiotelegraph regulations rather than from M.1677-1, and has its own guide: SOS in Morse code.
How to read the chart
Morse code has no fixed speed, only fixed proportions, and M.1677-1 sets them all in terms of the dot:
- a dash lasts as long as three dots;
- the gap between signals inside one letter lasts one dot;
- the gap between two letters lasts three dots;
- the gap between two words lasts seven dots.
That is why the tiles draw a dash three times as long as a dot, with the same small gap between every signal. When you write Morse by hand, a space between letters and a slash between words keep those gaps readable. The translator reads both, and also accepts the dot and dash characters people paste from other sites, such as · and —.
Learning the alphabet
A chart is the fastest way to look a letter up, and the slowest way to learn to hear it. Reading the chart trains you to count dots and dashes, and at real speed there is no time to count. If you want to copy Morse by ear, learn each letter as a rhythm from the start: How to learn Morse code by ear walks through the method step by step.
Sources
- Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1, International Morse code. ITU Radiocommunication Sector, October 2009.
- International Radiotelegraph Convention and Service Regulations, Berlin 1906 (English text). ITU History Portal, signed 3 November 1906.