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How to Learn Morse Code (by Ear, the Koch Way)

By Translate Morse Code, Updated

Answer first

To learn Morse code, learn it as sound, not as a chart of dots and dashes. Use the Koch method: play every character at full speed, about 20 words per minute, start with just K and M, copy groups of five, and add the next character each time you get 90% right. Ten to twenty minutes a day works better than one long session. Lesson 1 is below: press play on K and M, then start the course.

  • K

    -.-9 units · 0.54 s

  • M

    --7 units · 0.42 s

10 groups of 5, just K and M, scored as you goStart lesson 1

Know some Morse already? Take the placement test and the course starts where you are.

On this page · 11 sections

Learn Morse code by sound, not by sight

Most people start with a chart, and that is the slow road. Reading -.- as K means counting: dash, dot, dash, then a look-up. At slow speeds that works; at real speeds the look-up can't keep up.

ARRL's 1990 QEX article on Farnsworth timing, by Jon Bloom (KE3Z), describes the trap. Beginners at slow speeds count the elements, and the switch from counting to hearing a rhythm "is probably the cause of the oft-mentioned 13-WPM barrier." Morse Code Ninja puts the ceiling of conscious look-up at 10 to 13 WPM.

So ARRL's advice is to learn the alphabet "by the way it sounds: dits and dahs." Say a dot as a short "di" (or "dit" at the end) and a dash as a held "DAH". A is not "dot dash", it is di-DAH. Press play and say each one along with it:

LetterSay it (ARRL)Code
Adi-DAH.-
BDAH-di-di-dit-...
CDAH-di-DAH-dit-.-.
DDAH-di-dit-..
Edit.

When you copy, write the letter, never the dots and dashes. ARRL's "Tips for Learning Morse Code" (Chuck Adams, K7QO, and Rod Dinkins, AC6V) says it plainly: "Learn each character as a sound… Never write dots and dashes."

How to learn Morse code with the Koch method: 8 steps

Ludwig Koch, a German engineer, published the method in 1936. It plays every character at the target speed from the first day, starts with two characters, and adds one more each time you copy with 90% accuracy. Here it is as a daily routine, with the drill on this site that does each step.

  1. Set the speed. Characters at 20 WPM, with the gaps stretched to an overall 12 WPM. These are the defaults in the sound settings every drill here shares. LCWO, a free Koch course that runs in the browser, starts new users at 20 WPM characters and 15 WPM effective, and says of the character speed: "Keep it above 15 WpM by all means!"
  2. Start with K and M. Lesson 1 of the Koch course has just these two. Lesson 1 takes a few minutes: start the Koch course.
  3. Copy 10 groups of 5 by ear. A group plays, you type the letters you heard, and the course scores it letter by letter. A missed letter costs only that letter, so let it go and listen for the next one. Morse Code Ninja's advice is the same: "If you miss a letter or word, let it go."
  4. Reach 90%, add a character. Copy 90% across the lesson's 50 characters and the next one joins: U in lesson 2, R in lesson 3. Groups lean towards the newest character and your weakest ones.
  5. Do the daily review. Open the daily review before each lesson. Each character you have met comes back after 10 minutes, then 8 hours, then 1, 3, 7, 16 and 35 days. A right answer within 1.5 seconds moves it up a step, a slow one keeps it where it is, and a miss sends it back to step 1. The default goal is 30 answers a day.
  6. Untangle the sound-alikes. When one pair keeps failing, drill its family in the sound-alike drill: E I S H 5, T M O 0, A U V 4, N D B 6, R L F, W J P 1, G Z Q 7, or K C Y X.
  7. Build instant recognition, then words. Instant recognition asks you to name each character the moment you hear it. Then copy words, callsigns, abbreviations and numbers in the listening drills. Turn on "Known characters only" to stay inside what the course has unlocked, and try head copy, where you listen without writing. CW Academy calls instant character recognition "the only way to go" past 13 to 15 WPM.
  8. Learn to send after you can copy. Morse Code Ninja: "Learn to copy all the characters before learning to send." CW Academy even sets sending practice slower than copying. When you are ready, keyer practice takes a straight key or iambic paddles by keyboard, touch or MIDI, and its hold and pause meters show each press and gap against the dot and the dash.

The Koch order: all 41 characters

The course teaches 41 characters in this order, the same order LCWO uses:

K M U R E S N A P T L W I . J Z = F O Y , V G 5 / Q 9 2 H 3 8 B ? 4 7 C 1 D 6 0 X

Lesson 1 has 2 characters and each lesson adds one, so there are 40 lessons and lesson 40 holds all 41. Numbers and punctuation sit inside the order, not after it: the period arrives in lesson 13, the first digit (5) in lesson 23, and X in lesson 40. So there is no separate stage for learning Morse code numbers.

If you already know some code, the placement test checks you in stages at 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31, 36 and 41 characters, two groups each. 80% passes a stage, and the course starts after the last stage you passed.

Farnsworth timing: full-speed characters, longer gaps

Farnsworth timing keeps each character at full speed and stretches only the silence between characters and words. It is named for Donald R. "Russ" Farnsworth, W6TTB. ARRL's QEX standard of April 1990 describes it as characters sent faster than the words, for example 20 WPM characters slowed to an overall 10 WPM.

The standard adds a fixed delay to each word: ta = (60c − 37.2s) / (sc) seconds, where c is the character speed and s the overall speed. Each gap between characters gets 3/19 of it, and each gap between words 7/19. The site's timing code uses exactly this formula, so here is what the default 20/12 setting does:

Element20 WPM, standard spacing20 WPM characters, 12 WPM overall
Dot60 ms60 ms
Dash180 ms180 ms
Gap inside a character60 ms60 ms
Gap between characters0.18 s0.50 s
Gap between words0.42 s1.16 s

Each letter sounds the same in both columns; only the thinking time changes. As you improve, raise the overall speed towards 20 and the gaps shrink. Never lower the character speed instead.

One caution comes from the "Dirty Dozen" that Morse Code Ninja credits to Jack Ritter, W0UCE: "adding extra space between characters often leads to unintentional counting." Use the long gaps to get started, then close them.

How to learn Morse code fast (and keep it easy)

Speed comes from frequent short sessions, not long ones. The sources agree on the dose:

  • Morse Code Ninja: twice a day, for 10 to 15 minutes.
  • David G. Finley, N1IRZ: "at least one 15-30 minute training session every day".
  • Jack Ritter's Dirty Dozen: sessions no longer than thirty minutes, broken into ten- or fifteen-minute pieces.
  • The Koch course here: 10 to 20 minutes a day.

To keep it easy, stay at full character speed, let a missed letter go, and review before you learn anything new.

How fast is possible? Finley reports that Koch's own hand-picked group reached 12 WPM in 13.5 hours. Those students were chosen for the test. For everyone else Finley writes: "You may succeed in a month or in several months; individuals differ greatly."

Can you learn Morse code in 5 minutes? You can do lesson 1 in that time: its 10 groups are about 44 seconds of sound at 20/12, and the rest is your typing. Hearing every character by ear takes weeks. The sourced figures are in how long it takes to learn Morse code, stage by stage.

How to send Morse code: key, tap or light

Whatever you send with, the timing is the same. A dot is one unit and a dash three. The gap inside a character is one unit, between characters three, and between words seven. At 20 WPM a unit is 60 ms, because the standard word PARIS is 50 units long.

  • With a key. Keyer practice reads a straight key (Space, Ctrl, a mouse click or a touch) or iambic paddles, and tells you when, for example, your dashes are too short.
  • By tapping. On a phone, keyer practice gives you a large on-screen key to tap like a straight key: a short press is a dot, and a press about three times longer is a dash. If you would rather not time your taps, the Morse keyboard has one key for a dot and one for a dash and shows each letter as you finish it.
  • With light. The flashlight signaller flashes a message with your phone's torch or screen.

Learn to copy first (step 8), and check your timing as you send: Morse Code Ninja warns that bad sending habits formed early are hard to break.

How to teach Morse code to kids or a class

  1. Put the Koch course on the projector and play lesson 1. Everyone writes the letters they hear, then checks against the answer on screen.
  2. Play Morse bingo as a listening game, one card per phone or laptop. The game deals a 5 by 5 card of letters and digits and sends one character at a time in Morse. Mark it if it is on the card; five in a row, a column or a diagonal wins.
  3. Print worksheets for desk or home practice. The answer key prints on its own page, for the teacher.
  4. Build something. ARRL's learning page lists code practice oscillator projects, including a one-hour oscillator with no soldering, sells an oscillator kit, and links ideas for teaching kids.

Older students who want a live teacher can join CW Academy, run by the CW Operators' Club. Its classes are free and eight weeks long, with two online sessions a week and a commitment to 60 minutes of daily practice. The Beginner class aims for 6 WPM and a basic contact on the air.

Mnemonics and charts: when they help and when to drop them

A phrase like "GOD SAVE the QUEEN" for Q (--.-) can fix a letter in memory on day one. The cost is a second step: you hear the sound, recall the phrase, then name the letter. Wikipedia's article on the subject says that this two-step translation is why none of these systems are useful "at practical speeds". If they help you start, use the Morse code mnemonics, then let them go. Keep the Morse code alphabet chart for looking a character up, not for learning it.

FAQ

Is Morse code hard to learn?

The letters are not hard; speed is. ARRL's tips say some people get there in days and others take months. Two things make it harder than it needs to be: counting dots and dashes, which tops out around 10 to 13 WPM, and the letters that sound alike. Learning by ear at full speed from the first lesson avoids the first trap, and the sound-alike drill handles the second.

What is the best Morse code trainer?

A Koch trainer: one that plays characters at full speed and adds them one at a time. ARRL's learning page lists LCWO and G4FON's Koch trainer, which sends letters "at the speed which you hope to achieve, but only two at a time." The Koch course here uses LCWO's order, scores every group and keeps your progress on your device.

Is there a Duolingo for Morse code?

If you mean a trainer with short daily lessons, a streak and spaced review, yes. The Koch course gives you the lessons. The daily review adds the rest: a daily goal (30 answers by default), the days you practised in a row, and each character brought back just before you would forget it.

How long does it take to learn Morse code?

Usually weeks to a few months to hear every character, and longer for conversation speed. Finley's estimate for the Koch method is a month to several months. A structured class is no shortcut: CW Academy's free Beginner course spends eight weeks getting students to 6 WPM. The stages, with a source for each figure, are in how long it takes to learn Morse code.

Try it

Start the Koch course and do lesson 1 now. Tomorrow, open the daily review first, then take lesson 2.

Sources

  1. ARRL, Jon Bloom (KE3Z), "A Standard for Morse Timing Using the Farnsworth Technique", QEX, April 1990
  2. ARRL, Learning Morse Code
  3. ARRL, Tips for Learning Morse Code (Chuck Adams K7QO, Rod Dinkins AC6V)
  4. LCWO (Fabian Kurz), Learn CW Online and its course text in the open source code · github.com
  5. Wikipedia, Morse code (Learning methods, Farnsworth speed, Speed in words per minute)
  6. David G. Finley (N1IRZ), So You Want to Learn Morse Code
  7. Morse Code Ninja (Kurt Zoglmann AD0WE), Advice
  8. CWops, CW Academy Options and the Beginner curriculum · cwops.org

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