# Morse playground

Canonical: https://worldradionow.top/museum/lab/
Language: en

Radio Museum 

# Morse playground

Turn letters into sound, solve a listening challenge and try a telegraph key. No account needed.

## A key, a circuit, a receiver

Pressing a telegraph key closes a circuit. Current flows and the receiver responds; releasing the key breaks the circuit. Short and long signals, together with the silences, carry a message.

## 01 · Text → Morse

Your message Use A–Z, 0–9 and spaces. This activity uses modern International Morse, not the early American system.

Encoded message 

Play signal Stop 

Speed · words per minute · 12 

02 

## Listen & guess

Start a round, listen to one letter, then type your answer. Replay as often as you like.

New round Listen again 

Which letter did you hear? Check answer 

Show answer Score · 0 

03 

## Build the signal

Make the displayed letter using the dot and dash buttons. A dot lasts one unit; a dash lasts three.

A

— · Dot − Dash 

Check answer Clear New round 

Score · 0 

Teaching tones are generated in your browser. They are not historical recordings. No microphone is used; your practice text is not sent to the server.

Reset scores 

## International Morse chart

Timing: dot 1 · dash 3 · gap within a letter 1 · gap between letters 3 · gap between words 7. The gaps are part of the code.

0 −−−−− 

1 ·−−−− 

2 ··−−− 

3 ···−− 

4 ····− 

5 ····· 

6 −···· 

7 −−··· 

8 −−−·· 

9 −−−−· 

A ·− 

B −··· 

C −·−· 

D −·· 

E · 

F ··−· 

G −−· 

H ···· 

I ·· 

J ·−−− 

K −·− 

L ·−·· 

M −− 

N −· 

O −−− 

P ·−−· 

Q −−·− 

R ·−· 

S ··· 

T − 

U ··− 

V ···− 

W ·−− 

X −··− 

Y −·−− 

Z −−·· 

[ITU-R M.1677-1 · View the original record ↗](https://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-M.1677-1-200910-I/)

[Who invented the telegraph? →](/museum/exhibits/electric-telegraph/)

## Sources & further reading

- [Signals without a wire](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1909/marconi/biographical/)
- [Listening through a crystal](https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8414466/cats-whisker-crystal-radio)
- [2LO: a voice from London](https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/this-is-2lo-london-broadcasting-station-calling/)
- [The contested airwaves](https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80014599)
- [A radio you could carry](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_713528)
- [The world is still on air](https://worldradionow.top/about/)
- [Who invented the telegraph?](https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/revealing-the-real-cooke-and-wheatstone-telegraph-dial/)
- [Who discovered radio waves?](https://www.deutsches-museum.de/museumsinsel/ausstellung/physik)
- [Morse: a language of timing](https://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-M.1677-1-200910-I/)
- [Titanic and listening for distress](https://www.itu.int/en/history/pages/itushistory-page-2.aspx)
- [FM: changing how a signal carries sound](https://reach.ieee.org/multimedia/edwin-h-armstrong-radio-pioneer-fm-radio-and-the-later-years/)
- [Sputnik: a signal heard around the world](https://www.nasa.gov/history/65-years-ago-sputnik-ushers-in-the-space-age/)
- [Who invented the radio receiver?](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1909/summary/)