Morse code alphabet

How to read it

ITU-R M.1677-1 confirms the International Morse code characters for radio services, and notes that versions of the code have been in use since 1844. Beside A to Z and the figures it has one accented letter, é (··−··). ARRL writes the same alphabet as sounds, dits and dahs (A is di-DAH, B DAH-di-di-dit) and says it is best learned by the way it sounds; the US Army’s 1957 manual TM 11-459 tells instructors to teach students to think of each signal as a pattern of sound. Britannica says this International code was devised by a conference of European nations in 1851 to account for letters with diacritic marks, which the original American Morse lacked.

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The alphabet and figures

The figures have a page of their own, Morse code numbers, and punctuation is on Morse code punctuation. How long each dot, dash and gap lasts is on Morse code timing.

Letters that mirror each other

Several letters in the ITU table are another letter reversed: A (·−) and N (−·), D (−··) and U (··−), G (−−·) and W (·−−), K (−·−) and R (·−·), B (−···) and V (···−).

Where the alphabet is still used

ITU-R M.1677-1 says the code continues to be used in the amateur and amateur-satellite services, and to a diminishing extent in the mobile and fixed services. Britannica names US Navy intelligence specialists, amateur radio operators and aviators, who communicate abbreviated identifiers in it. In the United States it is no longer needed for a ham licence: ARRL says the code requirement was dropped for the Technician class in 1991 and for every class in 2007.