Morse Code Translator

How to use the Morse code translator

1. Text to Morse: type or paste into the Text box. The Morse code appears in the other box as you type, with a space between letters and a slash between words.
2. Morse to text: type or paste Morse code into the Morse box and the English text appears on the left. Pasting Morse into the Text box works too: it is recognised and read.
3. Press Play to hear the code. The light flashes with each dot and dash and shows the letter being sent. Full-screen light turns the whole screen into the lamp, which is handy for signalling across a dark room.
4. Download WAV saves the sound at the speed and tone you chose, ready for a video, a puzzle or a ringtone.

Typing Morse code to translate it

Use a full stop or period for a dot and a hyphen for a dash. Put a space between letters and a slash (or two spaces) between words: .... . .-.. .-.. --- / .-- --- .-. .-.. -.. reads HELLO WORLD. The translator also accepts the dots and dashes people paste from elsewhere, such as •, ·, — and _. A code that is not in the Morse alphabet shows as #, which usually means two letters ran together without a space.

Morse code has no capital letters, so the translation always comes back in capitals.

Morse code timing and speed

Everything in Morse code is measured in one unit, the length of a dot. These are the rules of international Morse code (Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1):

Speed is given in words per minute (WPM), using the word PARIS, which is exactly 50 units long with the gap after it. So a unit lasts 1.2 ÷ WPM seconds: 60 milliseconds at 20 WPM, 120 milliseconds at 10 WPM. The speed slider sets this for the sound, the light and the WAV file.

Farnsworth spacing

With Farnsworth spacing on, each letter is still sent at the full speed, but the gaps between letters and words are stretched so the overall speed is slower. Learners use it so that every letter keeps the sound it has at full speed while there is time to recognise it. The translator follows the ARRL timing standard for this method by Jon Bloom, KE3Z: the extra time per word is (60c − 37.2s) ÷ (c × s) seconds, where c is the letter speed and s the overall speed, shared between the letter gaps and the word gap in the usual 3 to 7 ratio.

What the translator can handle

• Letters A to Z and the numbers 0 to 9. See the full Morse code alphabet chart, where you can hear every code.
• Punctuation from the international standard (. , : ? ' - / ( ) " = + @) and É, plus a few common symbols that are not in the standard: ! & ; _ $.
• Other accented letters are sent as the plain letter, so Ñ becomes N and Ü becomes U. Characters with no Morse code, such as emoji, are left out, and the translator lists them under the boxes.
• Procedural signals: type a name in angle brackets, such as <SK> (end of work) or <SOS>, to send it as one unbroken sequence. Typing SOS on its own sends the three letters with normal gaps.

Your text stays on your device

The translation, the sound and the WAV file are all made in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or saved, so you can translate a message without anyone else seeing it.