Morse Code

What it's for

Translate text to Morse code and back, hear it played, and practise sending it yourself. Good for learning Morse, puzzles and geocaches, and amateur radio practice.

For example, when you’re learning the code, play words at full character speed with extra spacing, then try keying them yourself and see what the tool reads.

How to use it

Type in either box and the other converts as you type. In Morse, letters are separated by spaces and words by /; ·, •, _ and − are also read as dots and dashes. Play sounds the code and highlights each letter in turn, and Download WAV saves it as audio.

Adjust the speed in words per minute, the Farnsworth spacing (letters at full speed with longer gaps between them, the usual way to learn), the tone and the volume. These settings are remembered. To key it yourself, hold the key button, or Space while it’s focused: a short press is a dot, a long one a dash.

To decode Morse you can hear, choose a sound file (or a video), or drop one on the page, or choose Listen to use the microphone; the code and text appear in the boxes, with the speed it was sent at. The sound is worked on in the page and never sent anywhere.

Example

Type this in Text:

SOS help

Morse shows ... --- ... / .... . .-.. .--.. Choose Play to hear it.

Good to know

When keying, a press shorter than two dots counts as a dot, and the letter and word gaps follow the speed setting, so set it close to your sending speed. Characters with no Morse equivalent are skipped. Decoding sound works on loudness, so it needs clear tones with quiet between them: a noisy radio recording, or two signals at once, may decode badly. The speed is worked out from the shortest tones, so a message of only dashes is read as dots.