Ampersand in Morse code
Written “&”, not in the ITU standard
The ampersand (&) has no official Morse code, but charts and translators send it as .-..., said di-dah-di-di-dit, the letters A and S run together. That same signal is the ITU wait signal, so on the air it usually means "stand by". Operators who mean "and" send ES instead, a habit kept from the old American telegraph code.
.-... (dot dash dot dot dot)
“di-dah-di-di-dit”dot dash dot dot dot
5 elements · 4 dots, 1 dash · 11 units
Hear it at your speed (WPM)
733 ms at 18 WPM
The ampersand at a glance
- Morse code
- .-...
- Said as
- di-dah-di-di-dit
- Elements
- 5
- Length
- 11 units
- At 18 WPM
- 733 ms
- ITU standard
- No
- Sounds like
- ASLetters run together
- Also a procedural signal
- ASthe ITU wait signal
An unofficial sign borrowed from wait
ITU-R M.1677-1, the standard for International Morse, has no ampersand. The five elements that charts give for &, .-..., appear in its list of signals under the name Wait. Printed charts and software reuse them for the ampersand, and this site's Morse code translator does the same, so R&D comes out with the wait signal in the middle.
Like the other unofficial marks on the Morse code punctuation chart, it decodes fine in software but may confuse a listening operator, who is likely to hear "wait" rather than "and".
ES: how operators write and
American (Railroad) Morse, the landline code of US telegraph lines, sent the ampersand as a dot, a short space and three dots. To an ear trained on International Morse that is E followed by S, and radio amateurs kept it as the abbreviation ES. A weather report such as WX HR COLD ES RAINY reads "the weather here is cold and rainy".
Sent as two letters, ES is . ..., 9 units long, against 11 units for the AS signal, so it is slightly quicker as well as clearer.
Hear it
- ES. ...
How it sounds, and its look-alikes
Short, long, then three quick shorts: five elements, about 0.73 seconds at 18 WPM. The three dots at the end are the letter S, so a handy memory tip is "A, then S".
Hear it
- L.-..
- +.-.-.
- AS.- ...
Characters to compare
Close to the ampersand in sound, so the likeliest mix-ups.
- Ampersand minus its last dot: L, dot dash dot dot
- Ampersand with its 1st dot as a dash: 7, dash dash dot dot dot
- Ampersand with its 2nd dash as a dot: 5, dot dot dot dot dot
- Ampersand with its 4th dot as a dash: Plus sign, dot dash dot dash dot
- Its last three dots: S, dot dot dot
- Another unofficial mark: Dollar sign, dot dot dot dash dot dot dash
Which one did you hear?
Listen, then pick or type the one you heard.
Try the ampersand in a word
Tap the ampersand yourself
Press for a dot, hold for a dash. Space works too.
- Send
- .-...
- Yours
- Nothing yet
Questions about Ampersand.
Is the ampersand part of International Morse code?
No. ITU-R M.1677-1 has no ampersand. The .-... signal that charts use for it is in the standard, but only as the wait signal, which is why it is labeled unofficial here.
How do I write R&D in Morse code?
Character by character: .-. .-... -.., with normal letter gaps. A translator decodes it as R&D, but an operator may hear R, wait, D, so on the air R ES D or R AND D is clearer.
What letter is three dots in Morse code?
Three dots, ..., is the letter S. It is also the tail of the ampersand signal, which is why charts write & as AS: an A run straight into an S.
How is SOS sent in Morse code?
SOS is three dots, three dashes and three dots, ...---..., sent as one signal with no letter gaps. Like the ampersand, it is a run-together signal. The SOS page plays it and explains its timing.