Morse code turns text into a rhythm of short and long signals that can travel over a radio wave, a flashing light, or a telegraph wire — no screen or keyboard required. This translator converts between plain text and International Morse code in both directions, and can play the result back as timed audio so you can hear what a real transmission sounds like.
How the translator works
Every character you type is looked up in a fixed table defined by the International Morse Code standard (ITU-R M.1677-1): each of the 26 letters, 10 digits, and the common punctuation marks has its own unique sequence of dots and dashes. Encoding is a straight lookup, letter by letter, with a single space between the codes for letters in the same word and a slash (/) between words. Decoding runs the same table in reverse — splitting the input on slashes to find word boundaries, then on whitespace to find individual letter codes.
The Play button turns the encoded string into real audio using the Web Audio API. It follows the standard Morse timing ratio: a dash is exactly three times as long as a dot, the gap between symbols in one letter is one dot-length, the gap between letters is three dot-lengths, and the gap between words is seven dot-lengths — the same proportions a real telegraph key or radio operator would use, just compressed to a comfortable listening speed.
Reading and writing valid Morse input
When decoding, use a single space between the codes for each letter and a slash surrounded by spaces ( / ) between words — for example ... --- ... / ... --- ... for 'SOS SOS'. Only dots (.), dashes (-), spaces, and slashes are meaningful; any other character or an unrecognized dot/dash sequence is skipped and reported rather than silently guessed at, so you can see exactly which part of a transmission didn't translate cleanly.
When encoding, the translator upper-cases your text automatically since Morse code has no separate concept of case. Accented letters and symbols outside the standard International Morse table (such as em dashes or emoji) are not supported and are listed as unsupported characters in the result detail rather than silently dropped without explanation.
Where Morse code is still used
Although superseded by digital communication for most everyday use, Morse code remains legally required knowledge for many amateur radio operators, is used in aviation for identifying navigational beacons (VOR and NDB stations still broadcast their three-letter identifier in Morse), and shows up in maritime and emergency contexts precisely because it can be sent with nothing more than a light, a sound, or a simple switch — useful when voice or data channels fail. SOS in particular remains recognizable well outside radio circles as shorthand for 'send help'.