It is easy to find a chart that shows the translation from alphabet to Morse code. And those are easy to use when you want to EnCode or translate words into Morse code. The regular chart is optimized for translation in this direction because it is sorted alphabetically.
But what happens when you want to translate Morse code into alphabet? That is difficult with the usual Morse Code table because it is not sorted by dots and dashes. You have to hunt through the whole alphabet to find the matching Morse code.
Here is a novel approach to DeCoding Morse. Start with your finger at “Start Here”. Then move your finger to track the Morse dots & dashes. You will arrive at the correct letter! Try it!
You may download nice clean PDF all ready to print. The chart without numbers (as shown above) is simpler to look at and easier to use if you don’t need to decode numbers. I hope you find this useful, or at least amusing.
Download Morse DeCode Chart, A-Z (without numbers, as shown above)
Download Morse DeCode Chart complete with A-Z and Numbers (I left off the punctuation & symbols for simplicity).
| A |   |
N | |
1 | |
| B | |
O | |
2 | |
| C | |
P | |
3 | |
| D | |
Q | |
4 | |
| E | |
R | |
5 | |
| F | |
S | |
6 | |
| G | |
T | |
7 | |
| H | |
U | |
8 | |
| I | |
V | |
9 | |
| J | |
W | |
0 | |
| K | |
X | |
||
| L | |
Y | |
||
| M | |
Z | |
I am sure someone has pointed out that the decoder chart for 9 seems to be wrong for if you trace it out it shows 5 dah’s and 1 dit. The chart above shows 4 dah’s and 1 dit for 9. Maybe the chart line for 9 needs to be moved between the 4th and 5th dah. Every thing else on the chart seems to be good.
Hi Danny, you have a sharp eye, and you are the first person to point this out! Awesome! Thanks for the help, I’ve corrected the #9 on the chart as you suggested.
Excellent Chart! Since I started learning Morse Code recently for the Radio Monday’s group, I’ve wanted something like this.
Thanks for making it available.
Carter
Hi Dave,
I stumbled upon your site and found your morse code tree. I love the layout! I had a question – the tree I was introduced to was the standard ‘dits’ to the right, and ‘dahs’ to the left. I like the layout of your tree much better though, and was curious if you still had the original layout file, or could reverse the layout so the dits go to right and dahs to left? I’d love to get it from you if you’d be so kind!
Thanks,
James
Hi James, I do have the original file. I did it in a Mac drawing application called Intaglio. If that is something you can open, I’m happy to share the file with you. Hmmm, it might be possible to reverse the whole drawing without a lot of trouble.
Awesome chart!
I has been looking for this since I saw it in a coin, and besides you, I have only found it in a course of Physics of ham radio from the rice university ham club.
I am not sure which is easier to use, this or the morse code “tree”, but this is definitely my favorite for looks.
My only pick would be that IMHO the letter F would be better put to the left in both charts, just for the sake of a sense of simmetry.
Your chart is wonderful! I’m a music professor (composition), and am quite accustomed to graphics that represent sounds, so this sort of graphic is right up my alley, and will help me immensely. I’m also a ham, General class, planning on going for Extra soon. I’m new enough to the whole thing that I haven’t had to pass a code test, and won’t for Extra. But this morning, I read of the death of Admiral/Senator Jeremiah Denton, who’d blinked Code to convey a message when he was a POW. I’ve decided to learn Code to honor him, and to honor my dad, a violist whom the Army assigned to radio duties in WW II because they knew a musician would pick up Code quickly. And while I’m at it, I’ll honor Commander Lloyd Bucher, who simply spoke a coded message via a homophone.
Thank you very much! 73
Dave,
Your De-coding chart is bar far the best tool for the many of us who want to re-learn CW. I am surprised that no one has caught on to what you are doing. It just makes sense. Before I found your chart I had to make my own (well kinda) that follows the dits and dahs so that pick up what I am hearing.
Anyway, genius is the abundance of common sense.
Bob/nz2z
– …. .- -. -.-
-.– — ..-,
-.. .- …- .!!!
most excellent. Since I’m a SKCC member, learned this back in Navy C-school in San Diego 1973. I mapped this out once like this, but didn’t think of the tree thing, Much easier.
73 NLOH
Dave,
Why not add common punctuation’s?
Thank you, I’m teaching myself and I think this will do the trick!
teaching my self thanks for the help.
That’s a great idea. I’m looking forward to seeing if it streamlines my learning by listening and using this to decode. (It’s got to sink in!).
I too wondered why F isn’t pointing left. Otherwise, great chart,
Thank you!
This seems to be fairly similar to the “key charts” that are commonly used in swiss scouting groups for exactly this purpose. A variant of this is a tree layout, one each for symbols beginning with dot or dash, starting at the top, with a line straight down for a dot as the next character, and a line diagonally down to the left or right for a dash as the next character.
My problem with both Your and above layout is, at least in my opinion, that since the movement in the graph 2d-plane is dependent on context (in the “swiss key chart” being the starting symbol of the letter, in your chart actually the 2d-location itself) it is much harder than necessary to transcribe characters at receiving speeds.
An example to illustrate above point:
To decode the “F” character in your chart, you move left for the two initial dots, then down for the dash, and then down and right for the final dot. Now imagine that you have to do this without being ultimately familiar with the chart, and at speeds where you don’t actually want to read the symbols in the chart, but rather move your finger according to the symbol you receive the moment you receive it.
So what am i proposing ? A simple binary tree, where you start at the root “empty” node, and move diagonally down to the left for a dot, and diagonally down to the right for a dash. Every node but the “starting node” has an associated symbol (except for some nodes leading to the longer “digraph” and “trigraph” symbols/ metacharacters). This way you only need to be able to make out the very basic structure of the tree while receiving (you could potentially even stamp it into a flat metal sheet or 3d-print it), thus enabling far higher receiving / transcribing speeds.
Although, to be fair, you don’t really want to use the chart anymore if you want to become “fluent” in morse.
I learned about these kinds of sheets way back in 1964. One of my schoolmates dad was (he said) was CIA and he had one of these charts. Very similar to this one.
As a frequent (often daily) user of Morse code, I find this interesting, but not relevant from my perspective. To me, Morse code is a language of sounds, not dots and dashes. I hear letters and words, not the individual dots and dashes. Just my $.02 worth, your mileage may vary…
73, de WBØVPS
I believe the Victor and Uniform are reversed in the chart.