Morse code translator
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Type text and hear it sent, or paste dots and dashes and read them back. The tone is made in your browser rather than fetched, at the speed and pitch you choose, with the proportions Morse has always had: a dah is three dits, the gap between letters is three, between words seven. Speed is set in words per minute against the word PARIS, which is where that measure comes from, and Farnsworth spacing lets you practise at a slow overall pace while every letter still sounds the way it will at full speed.
Sending speed and tone
Fifteen words a minute is a comfortable listening speed. Licence tests have historically been set at five to thirteen, and operators on air often run twenty or more.
Set the overall speed lower than the character speed for Farnsworth practice: each letter is sent at full speed and only the silence between letters grows. It is how people learn to hear a letter as one sound rather than counting its dots.
Around 600 Hz is the traditional sidetone on a radio. Lower is easier on the ears over a long session.
Frequently asked questions
Is my text uploaded?
No, and neither is the sound. The tone is generated in this tab from an oscillator rather than fetched as a file. The site’s security policy sets connect-src ‘none’, so the browser blocks network requests from these pages, meaning nothing here could be sent even if the code tried.
What does words per minute actually measure?
The word PARIS, sent once. It is fifty units long counting the gap that follows it, which makes it the standard yardstick, and it is why one unit is 1200 divided by the speed. Twenty words a minute means PARIS fits into a minute twenty times. Any translator whose timing does not do that is quoting a number that means nothing.
What is Farnsworth spacing, and why would I want it?
A learner who practises at five words a minute learns the shape of a slow letter and then cannot read the same letter at twenty, because it sounds like a different thing. The Farnsworth answer, worked out at the ARRL, is to send every character at full speed and stretch only the silence between them. Set the character speed to eighteen and the overall speed to eight and you get letters that sound exactly as they will on air, with time to think between them.
Why does the tone fade in instead of just starting?
Because switching a tone on instantly produces a click at both ends: the waveform jumps from nothing to full height, and your ear hears the discontinuity rather than the note. Every transmitter shapes that edge for the same reason. Five milliseconds is enough to remove the click and far too short to affect the rhythm.
Is Morse still used?
Yes, in three places at least. Amateur radio operators use it daily, and it gets through when voice will not because a narrow signal carries further on the same power. Aviation navigation beacons identify themselves in Morse, and pilots listen to confirm they have tuned the right station. And SOS remains the international distress signal, chosen in 1906 not because the letters mean anything but because the rhythm is unmistakable and cannot be broken up wrongly.
Why is SOS not the same as S O S?
Sent as three letters there are gaps between them. SOS is a prosign: it runs together as one nine-element signal with no gaps, which is what makes it impossible to mishear as three separate letters or as any other combination. That was the entire point of choosing it.