List of Morse code characters

Morse code ("Morse code", "Morse code"), a list of signals consisting of a series of numbers, letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks, and other symbols that are a character encoding method. The code itself consists of dots and dashes, reproduced using radio signals or by interrupting direct electrical current. Morse code is named after Samuel Finley Breeze Morse.

History of creation

Inventive artist Samuel Morse

S.F.B.Morse.

Already in early childhood, Samuel showed the ability to draw. Morse was inquisitive and always interested in science, enrolling in Yale University, 16-year-old Samuel Morse attended the then popular lectures on electricity. Many years passed before the interest turned into the practical application of knowledge. Known as an inventor, however, he also left his mark on art.

In 1832, sailing from Le Havre to New York on a packet boat SALLY he drew attention as a doctor Charles Thomas Jackson entertained the audience by demonstrating his experience-focus. It was based on the use of electromagnetic induction, the compass needle began to rotate, it was worth bringing a piece of wire under electric voltage. Morse had the idea that it would be possible to transmit certain signals over wires; during the month of sailing, he sketched out preliminary drawings of the prototype of the telegraph.

invention of the telegraph

ABC of the Chappe telegraph.

The telegraph has existed since the 17th century, the optical telegraph by Claude Chappe was invented in 1792 and was used for a long time both in the Old and New Worlds.

Arrow telegraphs and telegraphs with pointers were not particularly convenient. Played a big role human factor, telegraph operator receiving station had to quickly read incoming characters and could not always check the accuracy of the transmitted message

Thanks to the help of a colleague from the chemistry department, Leonard Gale, the apparatus showed the first signs of life. The electricity in Morse's apparatus was supplied by low-power galvanic batteries, the longer the wire between the transmitter and receiver, the more batteries were required. Morse, with the help of Gale, gradually brought the length of the wire to 300 meters.

The first Morse apparatus weighed 83.5 kilograms.

The device includes a lever on a spring, by pressing it an impulse is transmitted. Depending on the duration of pressing, the impulse was short or long. An electromagnet was used at the receiving end, and one arm of the lever was attracted to its armature in accordance with the incoming impulses. A pencil was attached to the other shoulder as soon as electricity, the pencil descended and left a mark on the moving paper in the form of a line. When the current was interrupted, the pencil rose, thus creating a gap.

In September 1837, Morse demonstrates his invention at New York University. New Jersey industrialist Steve Weil was present in the hall. Interested in innovation, he provided a room for experiments and donated 2 thousand dollars, with the condition that Morse should take his son Alfred as an assistant. Alfred Weil had an engineering mind, he made a significant contribution to the creation of Morse code and the improvement of the transmitter.

Recognizing the need for unification unified system communications thousands of kilometers of the Atlantic coast (ordinary semaphores were not suitable for this role), in 1843 the government of the North American Republic gives Morse a subsidy of 30 thousand dollars. A 65-kilometer line was laid between Washington and Baltimore. On May 24, 1844, the first telegram was transmitted through this line with the words “Wonderful are your deeds, Lord!”.

Morse demonstrates his invention to scientists.

In 1858, Charles Wheatstone creates an automatic telegraph machine using punched tape. The operator, using the Morse code, typed messages on a perforator, the transmission was carried out by feeding the tape into the telegraph. In this way, it was possible to transmit up to 500 letters per minute, which is five to six times more than with handmade through the key. At the receiving station, the recorder typed the message onto another paper tape.

Subsequently, the recorder was replaced by a signaling device that converted dots and dashes into long and short sounds. The operators listened to the messages and recorded their translation.

The Morse telegraph was used not only in the 19th, but also in the 20th century. In 1913, 90% of the Russian telegraph network consisted of Morse devices.

Morse code

Telegraph Morse.

The invented apparatus could not display letters, only lines of a certain length. Therefore, each alphabetic character and number was assigned its own combination, consisting of combinations of short and long signals, which were depicted on a paper tape.

The original "Morse code" table differs from the one used today. It used signs not of two, but of three different durations (dot, dash and em dash). Rarely occurring letters and numbers were combinations of three to five characters, some characters had pauses inside their codes. Due to the large number of signs, confusion was created, which significantly complicated the work of receiving telegrams.

Spreading around the world, the alphabet has gone through a lot of transformations. In Russian, Latin letters were replaced by Cyrillic ones consonant with them. The Japanese, with their hieroglyphic writing, invented their own version of Morse code, in the so-called "Wabun code" each combination of dots and dashes meant not a single letter, but a whole syllable.

The code was gradually refined, the encodings of the modern and original tables coincide for about half of the letters and do not match for any of the numbers. In the current Morse code, each letter corresponds to a combination of long parcels (dashes) and short parcels (dots). A pause between characters in a letter is one dot, and between letters in a word there are 3 dots, a pause between words is 7 dots.

In practice, remembering a combination of dots and dashes for each letter is possible at a low transmission rate, but as the speed increases, there will certainly be errors. For a serious study of the code, you need to memorize not the number of dots and dashes in a letter, but the “chant”, which is obtained when the whole letter sounds. Thus, when you hear the chant "Gaa-gaa-rin", it means the letter "G" has been transmitted. Depending on the school of study, "Chants" may vary. If there are only numbers in the radiogram, then only one dash is transmitted instead of five dashes. For the most popular phrases and letters in everyday life, simplified combinations of letters or numbers were developed.

Although nowadays it is customary to use modern methods communications, due to its simplicity and reliability, professionals and amateurs use the Morse code in radio communications at the present time.

Using "morse code"

Passing long distances, the signal can be distorted, interference is superimposed on it, the signal transmitted by Morse code is easier to recognize and store. Coding can be done manually, recording and playback of signals occurs using the simplest devices. Being a simple and reliable coding system, Morse code is used in almost all areas where CW communication is used.

Due to the presence of a short-wave radio transmitter with Morse code transmission, in difficult situations it is possible to transmit information to the rescue services and the information will come from the crash site.

Morse code has been widely used in military radio communications. in the fleet through signal spotlights, Morse code is used in visual communication between ships in line of sight in radio silence. Beacons and buoys with signal lights transmit certain letter combinations in Morse code and these combinations are given in

We bring to your attention Morse code translator online.

What does it mean? Suppose you need to translate or listen to how your text translated into Morse code will sound. You enter your text in the left box, indicate the language of the text below and press the arrow to the right. In the right window you will get the Morse code of your text. By clicking on the "play" button below, you can listen to your text in Morse code. This way you will use our Morse code translator online.

Online text translator
to Morse code and back

In the textual interpretation of the code, the “partition sign” (-···-) is used to indicate a space. This is done solely for ease of copying.

Attention! The built-in player works well in Chrome, normally - in Opera (if it shuts up, you can re-encode the text in Morse code, it helps), very mediocre - in safari. in Firefox and Internet Explorer doesn't work at all .

In the audio version of the message, all the rules are observed: the duration of one point is taken as a unit of time; the length of a dash is three dots; pause between elements of the same character - one dot, between characters in a word - 3 dots, between words - 7 dots.

The sound file for download is presented in the formatWAV (it needs to be downloaded, not opened in a browser). It is large: for example, the Morse code for sending"Greek rode across the river. sees a Greek, a cancer in the river. put the hand of the Greek into the river, cancer by the hand of the Greek tsap. it weighs 209 KB(although it contains only835 bit information).

Do you want to test your strength? There is nothing easier.

Morse code tunes:

This article will be of interest to radio amateurs who are fond of Morse code. The article deals with the device "Morse code sensor" on the ATtiny13A microcontroller, the main difference from similar devices is application of the standard computer keyboard PS /2. The author provided all the necessary documentation for the repetition of the device, including source programs and circuit board.

Currently, there are many applications for computers and gadgets based on Windows and Android, designed to study Morse code, as well as microcontroller circuits are presented on the Internet and literature, for example:.

There is nothing easier than using a ready-made solution, but "the customer is always right." So: this Morse code sensor was developed at the request and terms of reference of R1ZBJ - a radio amateur from the Murmansk region.

Primary requirements:

Nutrition from network adapter voltage from +9 to +12 volts

Using a standard PS/2 computer keyboard

Microcontroller used - ATtiny13A

Connecting a speaker or earphone for monitoring

Changing the baud rate with "by ear" control

Availability of LED indication of power and manipulation

Small relay for CW manipulation

Russian keyboard layout.

The scheme of the developed Morse code sensor is shown in Fig.1.

Fig.1 Electrical circuit diagram

The device is based on the Atmel ATtiny13A microcontroller IC2. The microcontroller is clocked from an internal oscillator with a frequency of 9.6 MHz. Power from the network adapter with a voltage of +9 ... +12 volts is supplied to the X1 connector. Diode D1 is designed to protect the circuit from reverse polarity of the supply voltage. The IC1 element has a 5 volt supply voltage regulator. A two-color LED HL1 is used as an indication of the presence of a supply voltage and an indication of CW manipulation. Green - power, red - CW keying. On the elements R3, R4, C5, C6, the simplest low-pass filter with a cutoff frequency of ~ 1500 Hz is made. The low-frequency amplifier is based on the IC3 MC34119D chip and does not have any special features.

Connector X2 is intended for connecting a standard computer PS/2 keyboard.

The X3 connector is intended for in-circuit programming of the microcontroller and the numbering of its pins corresponds to the pin numbering of the PICkit2 programmer.

Connector X4 is used to connect a variable resistor and adjust the volume.

A manipulated device is connected to pins 1, 2 of connector X5, and a speaker or headphones for self-control is connected to pins 3,4.

The F1 and F2 keys are used to adjust the manipulation speed. When you press the F1 key ( increase ) or F2 (decrease ) the baud rate is changed, its value is stored in the EEPROM of the microcontroller and the sign “Ж” sounds, and the manipulation external device relay contacts K1 is missing.

The space key corresponds to the Morse code "partition sign", and the Enter key corresponds to the "End of communication". A short press on the keyboard keys will sound Morse code characters, and a long press will automatically repeat the character. Morse code is available.

The device is assembled on a double-sided printed circuit board measuring 47x57 mm. Photos of the assembled device are shown in Fig.2-5.

Fig.2 Top view

Fig.3 Bottom view

Fig.4 Rear view

Fig.5 Front view

The controller program is written in assembly language in the programming environment AVR Studio v.4.18.

Scheme, drawings printed circuit board in the format of the Eagle program, photos of the finished device, PCB drawings for the LUT, as well as the source code of the program with comments and firmware can be downloaded in the below

You can ask questions at...

Samuel Finley Breeze Morse was born on April 27, 1791 in the family of the famous local preacher Jedid Morse in the American town of Charlestown (Massachusetts). In 1805 he entered Yale University.

In 1811, Samuel went to Europe to study painting with Washington Alston. The young man showed great promise as an artist. In 1813, he submitted to the London Royal Academy of Arts the painting "The Dying Hercules", which was awarded a gold medal. In 1815 he returned to his homeland. A few years later, Samuel was recognized as the leader and idol of young American artists (his brush belongs to the famous portrait of President Munro). In 1825, he founded a society of painters in New York (later the National Academy of Drawing) and became its president, and in 1829 he again went to Europe to study the structure of drawing schools and outstanding works of painting.

On October 1, 1832, the sailing ship "Sally" (the captain of the ship - Pell) left Le Havre for New York. The famous doctor of those times (the discoverer of anesthesia and new methods of pain relief in medicine) - Charles T. Jackson in the first class cabin demonstrated a focus experience to its passengers: the compass needle began to rotate when a piece of wire connected to a galvanic cell was brought to it. Samuel watched the experiment closely.

In Europe, at that time, the book of M. Faraday was published and the experiments given in it were repeated in many laboratories, and in early 1832 St. Petersburg witnessed the first experiments of Schilling. "Extracting sparks from a magnet" seemed a miracle to the uninitiated. The experience he saw gave him the idea of ​​creating a system for transmitting signals over wires, using combinations of transmission of "sparks". This idea captured him. During the month-long voyage home, Morse sketched several drawings. The next three years, working in the attic in the house of his brother Richard, he devoted to the construction of the apparatus according to his drawings, but to no avail. In 1835 he was appointed professor of painting at the newly opened New York University, where in September 1837 he demonstrated his invention. The signal was sent over a 1,700-foot wire.

A prominent American industrialist Steve Weil became interested in Morse's work and agreed to donate 2 thousand dollars and provide premises for further experiments on one condition - S. Morse would take his son Alfred as an assistant. The union of the younger Weil and Morse proved to be fruitful. The first message was sent on May 27, 1844, and the text of which read: "Wonderful are thy works, Lord!" For the transmission of parcels, a key invented by the Russian scientist B.S. Yakobi was used, and for reception, an electromagnet was used, the anchor of which controlled the movement of an ink pen across the paper.

Working on the further improvement of his telegraph apparatus, Samuel Morse in 1838 also invented a code - the telegraph alphabet. Note: The telegraphic alphabet (a system for encoding characters in short and long parcels for transmitting them over communication lines, known as "Morse code" or "Morse code"), which is used now, differs significantly from the one invented in 1838 by S. Morse, although some researchers believe that its author was Alfred Weil, Samuel Morse's business partner.

It should be noted that the original table of "Morse code" was strikingly different from those codes that sound today on amateur bands. In it, firstly, parcels of three different durations (dot, dash and em dash) were used. Secondly, some characters had pauses within their codes. The encodings of the modern and original tables match only for about half of the letters (A, B, D, E, G, H, I, K, M, N, S, T, U, V and W) and do not match for any of the digits. Moreover, to construct a code for a number of characters in the original Morse Code, other principles were generally used. So, along with "dots" and "dashes", there were combinations of "double dash" (letter L) and even "triple dash" (number 0), and some characters included a pause .... The Latin letter C, for example, was transmitted then as "two dots-pause-dot", i.e., essentially, as the letters I and E, transmitted one after the other. This significantly complicates the reception of radiograms. That's why they soon appeared various options telegraph alphabet, which did not contain codes with pauses between parcels (Phillips, Baln, "sea", "continental" ...).

The modern version of the international "Morse code" (International Morse) appeared quite recently - in 1939, when the last adjustment was made (the so-called "continental" version), which mainly affected punctuation marks. It sounds even more incredible, but the fact is that the original version of the "Morse code" was used in some places on railways until the mid-1960s!

In 1851, the German Telegraph Commission assessed the advantages of the Morse apparatus, and since then it has found its wide application.

In recent years, S. Morse lived in Ponchkif (near New York) and died on April 2, 1872 in wealth and honor.

According to the site www.qso.ru

Samuel Finley Breeze Morse Born April 27, 1791 in the family of a preacher Jedid Morse in the American town of Charlestown, Massachusetts. Until the age of 34, Morse was extremely far from technology, he was an artist. In 1826 Morse founded the National Academy of Drawing and was its president from 1826 to 1845.

Self-portrait, 1818 Mrs. Richard Cary Morse and Family Dying Hercules
Muse. Suzanne Walker Morse Portrait of little Miss Hawn Judgment of Jupiter

But today, few people know about this part of Morse's life. He became famous for the alphabet for the telegraph ...

Morse prompted the idea to create fast way transmission of information is a sad event. In 1825, Samuel received a letter that his wife was dying. Morse immediately set off, but did not have time; by the time he arrived, his wife had already died. This event shocked Morse so much that he decided to create a system that could quickly transmit messages over long distances.

At this time, Faraday's book was published and the experiments shown in it were repeated by many. Once he saw such "tricks" with electromagnetic induction. A live wire was brought to the compass, and its arrow began to deviate. This idea took hold of him. Morse sketched a couple of drawings. He devoted the next 3 years to the construction of his apparatus, but to no avail.

Morse could hardly have realized his idea on his own. He was helped by industrialist Steve Weil, who gave $ 2,000 for development and allocated premises, on the condition that Morse would take his son Alfred as an assistant.

He made the first working model of a telegraph in 1835. In 1838 he developed a system of dots and dashes (dashes) for coded message transmission. Alfred Vail possessed not only ingenuity, but also a sharp practical instinct. Over the following years, Vail contributed greatly to the development of the final form of Morse code, the introduction of a telegraph key in place of the connecting rod, and the reduction of the apparatus to a compact model. He also invented the printing telegraph, which was patented in the name of Morse, according to. the terms of the Weil and Morse contract.

The first telegraph message was sent on May 27, 1844, over a 64 km wire line between Washington and Baltimore, its text read: "What hath God wrought!" (Wonderful are your works, Lord!). At that time, the version of Morse codes involved the transmission of only numbers. Further, they needed to be translated into letters and words, which was very tedious.

Fragment of the first Morse code message transmitted from Washington to Baltimore. Traces of three steel needles on paper are clearly visible.

How was the first Morse telegraph apparatus arranged?

Weight E, through a set of gears D, similar to that used in a clockwork, set in uniform motion the paper web, rewinding from roller A to roller C. The oscillating pendulum F ended with a pencil g, which could leave a mark passing over roller B. Movement of the pendulum F along the paper was caused by the electromagnet h, when it was supplied with current from the battery I. Depending on the duration of contact between the pencil and paper, zigzags were drawn. From among the styles of these zigzags, Morse made the alphabet.

From 1832 to 1835 Morse used a mechanical manipulator. He cut out blocks of wood that had protruding teeth, then collected the necessary sequences of signs from them, fixing them on a wooden ruler M, which moved horizontally from the scrolling of the rollers L. When the protruding teeth raised the lever O, its other end fell and the wire jumper fell into the containers K and J filled with mercury, the circuit was closed and the current was supplied to the electromagnet. Morse later replaced the mechanical manipulator with a lever one.

Blocks that encoded characters in the first version of the apparatus and the trace left on paper on tape

In 1835 the apparatus was executed exactly as described above, and was presented at several public experiments 1835-1836. In 1837, Morse radically modified the receiver to be magnetoelectric, and held a demonstration at New York University. These experiments made a big noise in the USA, which is why it is erroneously believed that he invented the telegraph in 1837, although in reality the invention took place in the autumn of 1835.

A supply of paper tape was wound around cylinder D, the end of the tape was passed through pulley G. The weight of load B, through clockwork C, drives pulley G, which ensured uniform pulling of the paper. An electromagnet set in motion a lever, at the end of which a pencil was fixed, thus forming a series of lines - dots and dashes.

In the first models of the telegraph, Morse used a pencil. But since it was constantly necessary to sharpen its stylus, it was later replaced by a pen, into which ink was constantly supplied from the tank. The pen gave good results, but the "handwriting" was worse. In addition, the ink dried up if the device did not work for a long time, and the telegraph could be inoperative at a crucial moment. These difficulties forced the inventor to look for new solutions ... He settled on using a lever with three steel needles that left a stable mark on the paper, but did not pierce it. It looked like Braille for the blind. This method of embossing paper was used until 1860, when French engineers perfected the Morse telegraph to write with ink without problems.

The world's first electromagnetic telegraph was invented by the Russian scientist Pavel Lvovich Schilling.

In 1828, Schilling tested the design of a single-point telegraph, in 1829 a six-point telegraph. A year later, together with his mechanic I. A. Shveikin, he laid the first electromagnetic telegraph line in Russia, more than 5 miles long, on the territory of the Main Admiralty in St. Petersburg.

The receiving device was a signal apparatus, consisting of six multipliers with magnetic arrows suspended on vertical silk threads. The arrows had dampers in the form of plates immersed in a vessel with mercury. In the receiving device there was another calling multiplier of a similar device. A light circle was fixed on a thread above each arrow, painted white on one side and black on the other. One end of each multiplier coil was connected to the corresponding wire of the telegraph line, and the other ends, connected together, were connected to the common one. Thus, the telegraph line consisted of eight wires (six wires to the multipliers, one to the calling multiplier and one common).

P. L. Schilling's electromagnetic six-hand telegraph

The transmitter had a keyboard consisting of eight pairs of black and white keys. Six pairs of main signal keys connected the galvanic battery to the signal wires to the multipliers. The last pair of keys was connected to the calling multiplier. When one or several main keys, for example, black, were pressed, the corresponding circles on the receiving apparatus turned to the observer with their black side. Pressing the white keys turned the circles with their white side towards the observer. In the resting position, the circles were turned to the observer with an edge. When the call multiplier keys were pressed, the movement of its arrow turned on the bell.

For his six-needle telegraph, Schilling developed a simple code for the Russian alphabet, which, even from modern positions, can be recognized as convenient, concise and reliable. To transmit each letter of the alphabet, it was necessary to press one or two main keys of the transmitting apparatus. The numbers were transmitted over the line using three main signals. The device required a communication line of eight insulated wires, the construction of which was a rather difficult task for that time.

Morse code

Morse code is a code in which any character is represented certain combination short (dot) and long (dash) parcels. The unit of duration is the point transmission time. The transmission time of a dash is 3 units, the pause between the transmission of elements of the same character is 1 unit, the pause time between characters is 3 units, the pause between words is 7 units.

The original Morse code table differed significantly from the codes that are commonly used today.

• Initially, sendings of four durations were used: dot, dash, double dash (letter L), triple dash (number 0)
• Some characters had pauses within their codes. So the Latin letter C was transmitted as “two dots-pause-dot”, i.e. like the letters I and E, transmitted one after another
• The encodings of the modern and original tables match only for half of the letters (A, B, D, E, G, H, I, K, M, N, S, T, U, V and W) and do not match for any of the digits

Soon, various versions of the telegraph alphabet appeared that did not contain codes with pauses between parcels (Phillips, Baln, “sea”, “continental” ...). Alfred Weil made a great contribution to the development of Morse code. And in 1848, the Weyl / Morse code was improved by the German Friedrich Hercke (only two types of parcels were left - “dots” and “dashes”, codes for German letters were introduced, codes were changed letters F,J,L,O,Q,R,X,Y,Z). The modern version of the international "Morse code" was approved in 1939, when the last adjustment was made, affecting letters O,P,X,Y,Z, all numbers, and punctuation marks.

The currently valid Morse code is described in the official Recommendation ITU M.1677-1 (10/2009) “ International code Morse”, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the original source.

Thus modern Morse codes are:

1. Uneven - letters often used in English language, are encoded by fewer dots and dashes, which helps to reduce the time of message transmission
2. Unambiguous (bijective) - any sequence of Morse codes is decoded in exactly one way after decoding characters and vice versa.
3. Prefix - any sequence of Morse codes decodes the initial character of the sequence with exactly one decoded character in exactly one way.
4. Expandable - padded with new characters, so in 2004 the International Telecommunication Union introduced a new code "dot-dash-dash-dot-dash-dot" for the @ symbol used in an email address.