Instant Character Recognition
Hear one Morse character and react instantly: press its key, or tap it. Each round is 20 characters. Your reaction time counts from the moment the character ends, and the round shows which characters are slowing you down. Every answer feeds the spaced review.
Hear a character, press its key as fast as you can. Timing starts when the character ends.
What is instant character recognition?
The goal of ICR is to turn each Morse character into a single, instantly recognised sound — not a string of dots and dashes you decode in your head. Skilled operators don’t think “dah-dit-dah-dit, that’s a C”; they simply hear “C”. By isolating one character at a time and rewarding fast, automatic answers, this drill builds that reflex and removes the mental counting that caps your speed.
Timing starts when the character ends, not when it starts, so a long character such as 0 is not penalised against a short one such as E. Answers within 1.5 seconds count as instant and move the character up the spaced review; slower right answers keep it where it is. The summary lists the characters to work on.
Tips
- Answer on instinct — if you have to think, you’re too slow.
- Use the keyboard; it’s faster than tapping and more like real copy.
- Bump the speed up a notch once your accuracy is consistently above 95%.
- Short bursts of 1–2 minutes keep your reactions sharp.