Morse Code Translator: Text to Morse and Back, with Sound

Listen to it

The sound is made by your browser, no outside service is used. The speed is in words per minute (the word PARIS): beginners start at 10-15.

Morse code table

Letters (Latin)

Digits

Punctuation

Russian letters

Morse Code Translator: Text to Morse and Back, with Sound

Morse code writes letters, digits and signs with short and long signals: a dot and a dash. This page turns a text into Morse code and Morse code into a text, at once, as you type, in both directions. It knows the Latin letters, the digits, the punctuation and the Russian letters. It can also play the code as a sound, show it with a blinking lamp, and save the sound as a wave file. Everything happens in your browser, so your text is not sent anywhere and no outside service is used.

How to use it

1. To get the code, type a text in the left box. The right box shows the code.
2. To read a code, write or paste it in the right box. The left box shows the text.
3. Press Copy to take the result, or press Play to listen to it.

The code can be written with a dot and a hyphen (.-) or with a middle dot and a long dash (·—); all the usual signs are understood. Write one space between the letters. Between the words write a slash (/), a vertical bar, or two or more spaces. A new line stays a new line.

How to read Morse code

Every letter is a short group of dots and dashes: E is one dot, T is one dash, A is a dot and a dash (.-). The letters that are used often have short codes. The time is counted in units:

• a dot is 1 unit, a dash is 3 units;
• the pause between the signals of one letter is 1 unit;
• the pause between the letters is 3 units;
• the pause between the words is 7 units.

The speed is measured in words per minute, with the word PARIS as the standard word (it takes 50 units). At 15 words per minute one unit is 80 milliseconds. The table of all the codes is under the tool.

SOS

SOS (... --- ...) is the international distress signal. It is not an abbreviation of words: it is a pattern that is easy to send and to recognize. In a real call it is sent as one continuous group without the pauses between the letters. The tool writes it as three letters with the normal pauses, and the listener understands it all the same.

Russian letters and the alphabet for reading

The Russian letters have their own codes, which are close to the Latin ones: most of them are the code of a Latin letter that sounds the same (Ж is the code of V, Щ of Q, Ы of Y, Ю of Ü, Я of Ä). When you type a Russian text, it is turned into the code at once. The letter Ё is written as Е. The same code means different letters in the two alphabets: ...- is the Latin V and the Russian Ж. This is why the field "Read the code as" lets you choose the alphabet for reading. Some Russian school tables give the hard sign the code of the soft sign; here it has its own code, --.--. The Ukrainian and other alphabets are not supported.

Digits and punctuation

The digits are five signals each and are the same everywhere. The punctuation follows the international Morse code: a full stop .-.-.-, a comma --..--, a question mark ..--.., a slash, brackets, a colon, a hyphen, the @ and others. Some Russian tables use other codes for the full stop and the comma, so the text of a Russian lesson can differ from the result here. A character that has no code is left out, and the page tells you which one.

The sound, the lamp and the wave file

The button Play plays the code through your speakers. Choose the speed and the pitch with the sliders. The lamp next to the buttons blinks in the rhythm of the signals, so you can also send a message with a flashlight or a screen. The button "Download .wav" saves the sound as a file that you can send, put in a video or use in a game. A message up to 5 minutes long is played or saved.

Where Morse code is used today

• Amateur radio. The telegraph mode, called CW, is still popular among radio amateurs, as a weak signal in Morse code gets through where speech does not.
• Aviation. Radio beacons for navigation (such as VOR and NDB) send their name in Morse code, and a pilot can listen to it to be sure that the beacon is the right one.
• Signals. A lamp, a flashlight, a whistle or knocks can send Morse code when there is no other link. Scouts and sailors learn it for this.
• Accessibility. Some phone keyboards have a Morse input, which lets people with limited movement write with two switches.
• Games, quests and puzzles. Escape rooms, geocaching and school contests use Morse code for hidden messages.
• Gifts and jewellery. A name, a date or the words "I love you" in dots and dashes on a bracelet, a pendant or a tattoo.

How to learn Morse code

Learn the letters by their sound and not by the picture of dots and dashes: your brain should hear "di-dah" as the letter A. Start at a speed where each letter sounds quickly (about 15-20 words per minute) with long pauses between the letters, and learn a few letters at a time, beginning with E, T, A, N, I, M. Use this page to check yourself: type a word, listen to it, and then write down what you heard.

Limitations

• Morse code is a way to write, not a secret code. Anyone can read it, so do not use it to hide important information.
• If there are no spaces between the letters, the tool cannot know where a letter ends. A long run of dots and dashes with no spaces is read as one letter, and the page warns you about it. A message that lost its spaces can often be read in several ways.
• The prosigns (like AR or SK) are not in the table. You can type them as a group of letters.
• The sound is a pure tone with a soft start and end, not a recording of a telegraph key.
• Your text is not saved. Only your choice of the options, the speed and the pitch stays in this browser.

To turn a text into numbers in other ways, see the binary converter, the hex converter and the ASCII converter.