CW practice: Morse listening drills
CW practice in your browser: copy words, callsigns, abbreviations, code groups and numbers by ear. Type them or copy in your head, with band noise if you want it. Free, no account.
- Copied
- 0
- Letters right
- –
- Perfect in a row
- 0
Practice file: 20 words at your speed and sound, 3 s apart, as an MP3.
Your practice history
How to use
Pick what to copy: Words, Callsigns, Abbreviations, Numbers or Code groups, or Your text to copy your own words.
Choose Type it, or Head copy to listen without writing.
Set the speed and the Farnsworth spacing under the drill; switch on Known characters only if you are on the Koch method course.
Press Play, copy what you hear, then press Check or Enter.
Read each letter marked right, wrong, missed or extra, then press Enter for the next one.
Add band noise and fading to copy as on the air, or press Save MP3 for a practice file to play anywhere.
What it does
This is CW practice online, free and without an account: the copying practice between learning the characters and a real contact.
Five sets, or your own text. Common words; callsigns from around the world; radio abbreviations and Q-codes with their meaning; numbers as they are sent on the air (signal reports, times, frequencies, serial numbers); code groups of five random characters. Or paste your own text and copy it a word at a time; it is kept on this device.
Type it or head copy. Type what you hear and see every letter scored, or copy in your head, show the answer and mark yourself.
Fair scoring. A missed letter costs one letter, not the whole word. Your share of letters right and your run of perfect copies are counted.
On-air conditions. Band noise and slow fading (QSB), from off to heavy.
Practice file. Twenty items of the chosen set as an MP3, at your speed, tone, noise and fading, three seconds apart, with the answer key on the page.
Known characters only. Keeps to the characters unlocked in the Koch method course, and says so when a set has nothing made of them yet.
How it works
Scoring counts the fewest changes that turn what you typed into what was sent (the edit distance): each letter is right, wrong, missed or extra, and spaces do not count. Every letter goes into your accuracy and the daily review.
Speed has two settings, as on most CW trainers. Speed is how fast each character is sent; Farnsworth is the overall speed.
With Farnsworth below Speed, the characters stay fast and the gaps between them grow, shared 3 to 7 between letter and word gaps as in the ARRL’s Farnsworth timing standard (Jon Bloom, KE3Z, QEX 1990). Element timing follows ITU-R M.1677-1: a unit lasts 1,200 ÷ WPM milliseconds, counted on the word PARIS.
Band noise is a hiss filtered around the tone; fading moves the level slowly up and down, as QSB does on the air. Neither copies other stations’ interference (QRM).
The practice file plays 20 items one after another, each followed by 3 seconds of silence to write it down, and is made on your device as a 128 kbps MP3.
Examples
A scored copy: STATION copied as STATON has one missed letter, I. Six of seven letters are right (86%), and only I goes to the review as a miss. CQ copied as CW has one wrong letter, W for Q.
The gaps at Speed 20 WPM as Farnsworth comes down (the characters stay 20 WPM):
| Farnsworth | Gap between letters | Gap between words |
|---|---|---|
| 20 WPM (off) | 180 ms | 420 ms |
| 15 WPM | 338 ms | 788 ms |
| 12 WPM (the default) | 496 ms | 1,157 ms |
| 10 WPM | 654 ms | 1,525 ms |
Trust and limits
Private by design.
Honest about limits.
On your device
No account, no uploads
The drills run in your browser with no account. Nothing you type is uploaded, and the practice file is made on your device.Private
Saved on this device
Your answers and settings are saved on this device and shared with the other trainers.Know the limits
Simulated band conditions
The band noise is a hiss and the fading a slow drift; neither copies interference from other stations. A practice file holds 20 items; for more, save another.ITU-R M.1677-1
The drills’ code
They play International Morse (ITU-R M.1677-1). Maintained by Translate Morse Code, an independent site; last updated October 2026.
Good questions
Frequently asked questions.
About the CW practice
How do I practice CW online for free?
Choose a set above and press Play: each item plays at your speed, you type what you heard, and each letter is checked. No account is needed. Start with Words at 20 WPM characters and 10 to 12 WPM Farnsworth, then raise the Farnsworth speed once you copy about 90% of the letters.
What is head copy?
Understanding Morse without writing it down, the way you understand speech. It lets you follow a conversation at speeds too fast to write, and it is the goal for most operators. Choose Head copy, listen, show the answer and say whether you got it.
What are code groups?
Groups of five random letters and digits, a standard CW drill: with no words to guess from, you have to hear every character. Choose Code groups, and switch on Known characters only to use just the characters you have learned in the Koch method course.
Where can I download CW practice files?
Press Save MP3 above: you get 20 items of the set you chose at your own speed, tone, noise and fading, with the answer key on the page. The ARRL also publishes W1AW code practice MP3 files at fixed speeds on its code practice files page.
What speed should I practice CW at?
Characters at 18 to 20 WPM or faster, so each one is heard as a sound, with Farnsworth spacing to slow the overall speed while you learn. Raise the Farnsworth speed as your copy improves, until it equals the character speed.
What is a CW practice oscillator?
A small box with a speaker that sounds a tone while you press a Morse key, so you can practice sending without a radio. The Morse code simulator does the same on screen: key with a keyboard, a touch screen or a real key and hear the tone.
What are the radio abbreviations?
The shorthand of Morse contacts, such as CQ (calling anyone), RST (signal report), 73 (best regards) and QTH (my location is). Each one shows its meaning after you copy it.
Does this count toward my progress?
Yes. Every letter you copy goes into your accuracy and the daily review, and counts toward today’s goal.
Your practice history under the drill shows each day’s sessions, accuracy, speed and minutes, and Download CSV saves it. The practice file is for listening away from the page, so it is not scored.