About Morse Code Translator
Morse code is still in use among amateur radio operators and in some aviation and marine beacons, and it appears in puzzles and escape rooms too. Type or paste either text or dots and dashes, and the page works out which way to go. You do not have to pick a direction.
It is also a practice tool. You can hear any text as properly timed Morse, change the speed and pitch to match your training, and save the audio as a WAV file for listening on another device.
How it works
Input made up of nothing but dots, dashes, spaces, slashes and pipes is treated as Morse, and everything else as text. The alphabet follows ITU-R M.1677-1, plus common extras such as !, $ and &, which amateur operators use even though they are outside the ITU table. Accents are dropped, so é becomes E. In Morse input, look-alike characters such as • and a long dash are accepted too, and words can be split by a slash, a pipe, three spaces or a new line.
Timing uses the standard rule: a dash lasts 3 units, the gap inside a letter 1, between letters 3, and between words 7. Speed is set with the PARIS convention, where one word is 50 units, so a unit lasts 1.2 seconds divided by the words per minute. Tones are generated as a 16-bit mono WAV, with 5 millisecond fades on each so that they start and stop without clicks.
How to use Morse Code Translator
- Type in Text or Morse code, or press Try an example. The note below the box says which direction was detected.
- Read or Copy the result on the other side.
- Set the Speed and Tone sliders, then press Play sound to hear it.
- Press Download WAV to save the audio.
Real runs in both directions
SOS, help!
... --- ... / .... . .-.. .--.... --- ... --..-- / .... . .-.. .--. -.-.--
SOS HELPWords are split with a slash, and the comma and exclamation mark have codes of their own. The second line shows that Morse has no case, so decoded text is always in capitals. The word PARIS takes 43 units here, which is 2.58 seconds at 20 words per minute, since the 7 unit gap after the final word is not played.
When it helps
- Practicing copy by ear for an amateur radio license or for fun
- Solving or building a puzzle for an escape room or a geocache
- Making a Morse audio clip for a video or a game
- Checking your own hand-written Morse against the real thing
- Learning the code for a letter, a name or a date
Tips for a better result
- Learners often train with higher speeds and wider gaps between letters. This tool uses standard spacing only, so start at a speed you can follow and increase it from there.
- The default tone is 600 Hz, and the slider runs from 300 to 1,000 Hz. Move it if your ear prefers something lower or higher.
- Put spaces between letters when typing Morse. Without them, the whole run is read as one unknown code.
- Use the WAV file for repeat listening on a phone, since the page's player stops when you leave.
Good to know
- Only A to Z, digits and the listed punctuation can be sent. Other characters, such as
€or letters in Cyrillic or Arabic, are skipped and named in a note. Other national Morse alphabets are not supported. - It handles typed text only. It cannot listen to audio and decode it from a recording or a microphone.
- Decoded text comes out in capitals, because Morse carries no case.
- A code that matches nothing shows as
�and is listed in a note, and letters run together with no space will be treated that way. - Prosigns such as AR and SK, sent as a single run, are not treated specially.
Questions people ask
What is the code for SOS?
Three dots, three dashes, three dots: ... --- .... In real distress use it is sent as one run with no letter gaps, but here it appears with a space between letters, since each letter is treated separately.
How do I separate words in Morse?
Use a slash between words, with spaces around it if you like. A pipe, three or more spaces, or a new line also work. Single spaces separate letters.
What does words per minute mean in Morse?
It is based on the standard word PARIS, which takes 50 time units with its spacing. At 20 words per minute one unit is 60 milliseconds, and a dot is one unit long.
Why is my accented letter changed?
The ITU table has no accented letters, so the accent is dropped and the base letter is sent. That keeps the word readable, as Cafe instead of a gap.
What to use next
- Case Converter: to fix the capitals in a decoded message
- Number Base Converter: for other encodings of numbers, such as binary
- Base64 Encode Decode: if the text you were given is Base64 and not Morse
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