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Morse Code Translator

Encode text to Morse and decode Morse back to text.

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Frequently asked questions

Is Morse code still used today?

Yes, though rarely commercially. Amateur radio operators use it because a Morse signal cuts through noise and weak conditions where voice fails, and aviation beacons still identify themselves in Morse.

How is spacing represented?

A space separates letters and a forward slash separates words, which is the standard written convention. In transmitted Morse the equivalent is timing: a gap of three units between letters and seven between words.

What is SOS in Morse code?

Three dots, three dashes, three dots, sent as one continuous string with no letter gaps. It was chosen purely because that pattern is unmistakable and easy to send under stress — it is not an abbreviation for anything.

Pro tips

  • Use the standard NATO words rather than improvising. Inventing 'B for bravo, D for... David?' reintroduces exactly the ambiguity the alphabet was designed to remove.
  • Spell ambiguous characters phonetically and read digits individually — 'five zero' rather than 'fifty' — when dictating a reference over a call.
  • Remember that NATO is encode-only here: reading a phonetic spelling back is something a person does, not something software needs to reverse.
  • Morse timing matters if you are sending by hand — a dash is three dots long and the gap between letters is three dots, which is what makes it readable.
  • For binary, note that this maps characters to eight-bit groups; anything outside basic ASCII takes more than one byte in real encodings.

About Text Translator

Covers all three in both directions, including 8-bit binary and the NATO alphabet — the one people reach for when reading a serial number or a postcode aloud without being misheard.

Encode text into Morse code and decode Morse back into text, with letter and word spacing handled for you. Everything is translated in your browser.

Encode and decode Morse code, spell text out with the NATO phonetic alphabet, or convert text to and from 8-bit binary. It is a fun and practical helper for learning Morse, dictating codes clearly over the phone, or understanding how text maps to binary.

Switch between the three modes and translate in either direction. Morse and binary round-trip exactly; NATO is encode-only, because reading a phonetic spelling back is something people do rather than software.

Each of the three encodings solves a different transmission problem. Morse compresses language into two symbol lengths so it survives a channel too noisy or too narrow for speech, which is why it persists in amateur radio and why aviation beacons still identify themselves with it. The NATO alphabet exists because spoken letters collide: m and n, s and f, b and d and p are routinely confused over a phone line or a radio, and the standard words were tested across accents and poor links specifically to eliminate those pairs.

Binary is the odd one out — it is not for transmission but for seeing what a character actually is. Rendering text as eight-bit groups makes visible that a letter is a number and that the number is the ASCII code point, which is the step most explanations skip. It also makes the size of things concrete: a character is a byte in ASCII, and more than one once you leave it.

Common use cases

  • Preparing a message for amateur radio practice
  • Decoding Morse used as a puzzle or escape-room clue
  • Learning the alphabet by checking your own attempts
How it comparesDedicated Morse trainers offer audio playback and speed drills, which is what learning actually requires. This is the quick lookup version: three encodings in one place for when you need the answer rather than the practice.