Learning Morse Code Is Easy!
For years I thought it would be neat to be able to ‘speak’ Morse code. I learned that it can be written as a binary tree but that didn’t get me very far. I tried some apps but I never got around to actually learning it. Then I came across the video “LEARN MORSE CODE from a MEMORY CHAMP (in 15 minutes)” by Nelson Dellis in which he explains Morse code mnemonics. They are words and phrases that sound like the dots and dashes. There’s also a Wikipedia page for these. Now that sounds like a fun way to learn!
The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) has defined a lot of characters and created a surprisingly short document with recommendations.
Letters
Nelson comes up with some fun mnemonics. And there are more listed on that Wikipedia page. Some work for me and others less. I came up with some new things, replaced some parts, mixed it up. Then I did some practice and modified them a bit more. These were the mnemonics that I ended up with:
| Letter | Morse code | Phrase |
|---|---|---|
| A | .- | a-HAA |
| B | -... | BOB-is-the-man |
| C | -.-. | CO-ca-CO-la |
| D | -.. | DAN-did-it |
| E | . | eh? |
| F | ..-. | fetch-a-FIRE-man |
| G | --. | GOOD-GRAV-y |
| H | .... | hip-i-ty-hop |
| I | .. | it's-me |
| J | .--- | just-DON'T-DRIVE-DRUNK |
| K | -.- | KANG-a-ROO |
| L | .-.. | los-AN-ge-les |
| M | -- | MA-MA |
| N | -. | NA-vy |
| O | --- | OOOH-OOOH-OOOH |
| P | .--. | a-PIZZA-PARTY-yay |
| Q | --.- | GOD-SAVE-the-QUEEN |
| R | .-. | al-RIGHT-y |
| S | ... | si-si-si |
| T | - | TEA |
| U | ..- | u-ni-FORM |
| V | ...- | vic-to-ry-VEE |
| W | .-- | the-WORLD-TOUR |
| X | -..- | XRAY-at-the-DENTIST |
| Y | -.-- | YOU'RE-a-COOL-DUDE |
| Z | --.. | DRIVING-SLOWLY-zig-zag |
Now it’s time to see if you can decipher some morse code! This little game plays a random letter in morse code using jscwlib and checks if you are correct. Press play and enter the letter you hear:
(You can also press Enter or Space to play the sound.)
I found it helps when starting out to look at the written phrases while listening. On the first day I did this every few hours for ~10 minutes. After a night of sleep I was able to get a score of 1300+ with barely checking the phrases.
Numbers
Next up: numbers! Here a pattern is recognizable so there’s no need to come up with phrases for these:
| Number | Morse code |
|---|---|
| 0 | ----- |
| 1 | .---- |
| 2 | ..--- |
| 3 | ...-- |
| 4 | ....- |
| 5 | ..... |
| 6 | -.... |
| 7 | --... |
| 8 | ---.. |
| 9 | ----. |
The numbers 1 through 5 have exactly the same amount of dots followed by dashes. After that it’s the same but reversed. For the number 7: 7 = 10 - 3 dots. So 2 dashes + 3 dots. Easiest to remember is 1 dash = starts at 6.
Practice numbers
#!?%$
And finally: punctuation marks! There are some defined and some informal ones. Let’s take a look at the ones defined by the ITU:
| Symbol | Morse code |
|---|---|
. | .-.-.- |
, | --..-- |
: | ---... |
? | ..--.. |
' | .----. |
- | -....- |
/ | -..-. |
( | -.--. |
) | -.--.- |
" | .-..-. |
= | -...- |
+ | .-.-. |
× | -..- (letter X) |
@ | .--.-. |
Practice punctuation
Transmitting
We’ve been listening for a while now. It will get a bit boring, so let’s switch things up and try sending messages! But before we start transmitting, let’s take a look at the length of dots and dashes and the spaces between these. The ITU defined these and they can be expressed in units:
- A dot is 1 unit
- A dash is 3 units
- The space between dots and dashes is 1 unit.
- The space between characters is 3 units.
- The space between words is 7 units.
And that looks like this on a timeline:
There are some concepts like Farnsworth timing which allows a longer pause between words for learning.
Alright! Press the button or the T key to transmit and we’ll try to decode what you’ve ‘sent’:
The decoder adjusts to your transmit speed so it may take a few characters for it to catch up. Your current speed: ? words per minute.
Next steps
The only way to become more fluent is to practice more. The tools on this page are quite simple but you can find a lot more online. A popular website is LCWO.net but you’ll need to create an account if you don’t want to use the test account. And a fun game is Morsle. If you know of or have made something Morse code-related like a training tool or a game, I’d like to know about it!
Eventually you’ll go from counting dots and dashes to recognizing characters by sound. I am not there yet.