TEXT-TO-MORSE

What is Morse code?

Morse code emerged in the 1840s when Samuel F. B. Morse and Alfred Vail proved that short and long electrical pulses could outrun printed messages; within a generation the method stretched from North America’s rail lines to transatlantic cables (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

The International Telegraph Union (now ITU) unified regional codebooks in 1865 and its current Recommendation M.1677-1 defines the exact dot/dash recipe for every Latin letter, numeral, punctuation mark, and procedural prosign, which is why radio amateurs, aviators, and emergency beacons all follow the same table (ITU-R M.1677-1).

Modern hobbyists still rely on Morse for lightweight radios, resiliency drills, and puzzle hunts. Before you transmit—especially if multiple operators or tools already touched the message—compare two Morse outputs side by side so timing or separator differences can’t sneak into the exchange.

Timing: WPM, Farnsworth, dot/dash/space ratios

Speed is measured in words per minute (WPM) using the five-character word “PARIS” (50 timing units) as the reference. At 20 WPM each complete PARIS word, including its required spacing, lasts three seconds. ITU timing keeps dots to one unit, dashes to three, letter gaps to three, and word gaps to seven, so keeping those ratios steady is the key to confident decoding (morsecode.world timing guide).

Farnsworth timing stretches the silence between characters and words while leaving dits and dahs at the higher headline speed, which mirrors how on-air training nets help newcomers recognize whole letters without losing tone clarity (Farnsworth explainer). Set a high headline WPM for crisp tones, then dial down the Farnsworth slider for breathing room between symbols.

Default separators use a single space between letters and “ / ” between words to mirror ITU notation, but you can swap in commas, pipes, or double spaces as long as the resulting gaps still feel like three and seven dot units so readers do not misinterpret your pacing.

Generate Morse audio (pitch guidance)

Audio previews open near the 550 Hz pitch suggested by morsecode.world because that mid-band tone cuts through laptop and phone speakers without sounding harsh, and the slider lets you move higher for noisy rooms or lower for mellow practice (translator reference). Set your base WPM, keep Farnsworth spacing slower if you are still learning, then preview the result directly in your browser—no plug-ins required.

The audio controls reuse the same design language as our compare tool: sliders with clear end stops, labeled helper text, and focus-visible outlines so you can tweak them with a keyboard. Under the hood a Web Audio oscillator generates the tone, envelopes it with the proper dit/dah durations, and respects the separators you selected above. Because everything runs client-side, the experience stays consistent online or offline.

Try sine waves for the most traditional sound, square waves when you want a punchy training drill, or triangle waves for mellower practice. Volume is capped gently to protect hearing, and we automatically stop playback if you navigate away. These guardrails keep the experience predictable on phones, tablets, and ultrawide monitors alike.

Morse code chart (A–Z, 0–9, punctuation)

The table below mirrors the ITU specification so search engines and screen readers can index every row. Use it as a teaching aid, a quick reference while copying traffic, or a way to verify that your custom glyphs still map back to the canonical dot-and-dash patterns that radio ops expect.

Letters, digits, and punctuation are intentionally mixed to keep the list compact on mobile devices. Sort or filter it in your browser if you need to drill on one category. The same data powers the encoder/decoder above, so updating the mapping in code instantly updates this chart as well.