Category Archives: Learning morse code

A Cool New Way to Learn Morse Code

Wow, I found this cool new way to learn Morse Code. I’m not sure what it’s called, and I wish it was around when I learned Morse Code, but it’s pretty awesome.

Basically, Morse Code can be learned pretty easily visually. Once you have the visual Morse Code learned pretty well, you then need to start LISTENING for Morse Code. (You can look on the products section of this website to find kits and the such to help you learn to listen to Morse Code…)

I learned Morse Code out of an encyclopedia. It took me only about 2 hours of actual memorization. We used to pass noted in grade school written in Morse Code, and the coding/decoding also helped me to learn and retain it.

Anyways, back to the cool new way of learning Morse Code – check out this image:

Learn Morse Code the Visual Way

Learn Morse Code the Visual Way

If you memorize each letter individually, and then think back to it later, it’ll be somewhat easier to learn Morse Code. The only problem is timing – for instance, look at the Y. Y in Morse Code is “-.–” which is said, “dah-dit-dah-dah.” It’s tough to see in the picture above that the Morse Code Y should be that way, but at least you know that there are three lines and one dash, or three dah’s and one dit.

Does that make sense?

Morse Code Alphabet

The Morse Code alphabet can be written on a computer. For instance, in the International Morse Code, the letter “A” in the alphabet is “.-”. This is a dot-dash, and you say it, “Dit-dah.”

Here is the rest of the Morse Code alphabet via a table.

Morse Code Alphabet

The International morse code characters are:

Morse Code Alphabet
A •-
N -•
0 —–
B -•••
O —
1 •—-
C -•-•
P •–•
2 ••—
D -••
Q –•-
3 •••–
E •
R •-•
4 ••••-
F ••-•
S •••
5 •••••
G –•
T –
6 -••••
H ••••
U ••-
7 –•••
I ••
V •••-
8 —••
J •—
W •–
9 —-•
K -•-
X -••-
• •-•-•-
L •-••
Y -•–
, –••–
M –
Z –••
? ••–••

How I Learned Morse Code

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I would come home from school to my father pounding away on a straight or paddle key sending Morse Code back and forth to some person from an unknown destination. I always wanted to know how to send and receive Morse Code, but I was never able to understand.

One day, I asked my father, “How do I learn Morse Code?” He sent me over the the Encyclopedia Britannica set that we have, and I studied Morse Code for days. I memorized the dots and dashes and was able to quickly learn Morse Code easily.

I was able to write down the entire Morse Code alphabet, but learning to hear Morse Code was a totally different story. Learning Morse Code by ear was much harder than learning Morse Code by looking at it from an encyclopedia! The only problem was that I learned the wrong version of Morse Code, and I had to re-learn the entire thing!

Today, it’s much easier to learn Morse code, especially since you can now learn Morse Code online!