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Morse Code

The above table shows the Morse Code Characters for all letters and numbers - basically, these are the essential ones to know.

Just to be thorough, 4 other characters you might want to know are:

Period       • — • — • —
Comma       — — • • — —
Question Mark       • • — — • •
Slash /       — • • — •
You will need to know these 4 if you take a morse code test for an amateur radio license. However, if you are signaling to someone during an emergency, a comma is not the most vital morse code character to know is it?

If you are interested in Morse Code history, amateur radio, etc., a very good link is Roger Wendell's Morse Code.

Don't think of these symbols as "dashes" and "dots". Instead, think of these as "dah's" and "dit's". When a 'dit' is in the middle of a letter, think of it as a 'di'.
Example: the letter 'f' should be thought of as di-di-dah-dit.
Okay, at first this may look and sound silly but it is much better thinking this way as opposed to "dots" and "dashes".

Now let's move on to how these characters are sent.
In terms of duration, one "dah" equals 3 "dits".
The pause between each "dah" or "dit" equals one "dit".
Example: when you send the letter 'f' it would be as:
'di' (pause 1 dit) 'di' (pause 1 dit) 'dah' (pause 1 dit) dit.
The pause between each letter is 3 dits.
The pause between each word is 5 dits.

Memorizing Morse Code

First of all, the numbers follow an easily memorized pattern.
The letters, as you can see, are somewhat tougher to learn.
The 2 easiest letters to learn are:   e •     t —

There are 4 letters that use 2 characters:

a • —     i • •     m — —     n — •

8 letters use 3 characters:

d — • •     g — — •     k — • —     o — — —

r • — •     s • • •     u • • —     w • — —


12 letters use 4 characters:
b — • • •     c — • — •     f • • — •     h • • • •

j • — — —     l • — • •     p • — — •     q — — • —

v • • • —     x — • • —     y — • — —     z — — • •

There are some memorization "tricks" (or "mnemonics") you could use.

Letters that are the "reverse" of each other are:

a & n     d & u     g & w     b & v     f & l     q & y

Before we go on, it is important to stress that these tricks are only helpful to memorize Morse Code. Your Morse Code speed will not be fast if you keep thinking that "a is the opposite of n" and so on. That being said, here's some more memory tricks !!

Memorize 'f' by thinking of the word 'fin'. 'F' is • • — • which can be seen to be an 'i' and an 'n' but WITHOUT the pause between the 2 letters.

Similarly, you could think of the words:

JAM       LED       PAN       and       VIA  

Again, these are just suggestions. You will have to find a method to learn Morse Code that is comfortable for you.
Good Luck.

Morse Code Test

Receiving Morse Code is more difficult to interpret than to send so this will only test your receiving (decoding) ability. You have the option to be tested with letters only OR letters and numbers. The Morse characters that appear will be completely random. There could be repetition of characters within the same test.

First choose whether you want letters ONLY or letters and numbers.
Click the START button.
Morse Code characters appear in the first and third rows.
Type your answers in the second and fourth rows.
Use the mouse to go from box to box, OR use the TAB key. HOWEVER, after exiting out of the fifth box of the second row make sure the cursor goes to the first box of the FOURTH row.
When you have filled in the blank boxes, click CALCULATE SCORE and you will see how many correct answers you have.
A nice feature about this test is that you will be shown which boxes (if any) have incorrect answers AND if you wish, you can make corrections and press CALCULATE SCORE again to see if your score improved.
To take another test, click START, the answer boxes will clear out and 10 new Morse Code characters will appear.

LETTERS ONLY         Letters & Numbers


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