VK6FLAB (yes, that’s a real callsign, despite the four letters in the suffix) posted this to the amateur radio subreddit about a month ago. He has graciously allowed me to publish it here…..Dan
In my travels around the internet I’ve come across many and varied versions of Morse-code charts. From the incomprehensible through to the impenetrable, through to incorrect, incomplete and more.
Here’s one that is mostly right, though incomplete, but refers to the elements as dots and dashes: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/International_Morse_Code.svg/315px-International_Morse_Code.svg.png
Here’s an example of something that tries, but if you actually attempt to use it, you’ll go insane: http://www.learnmorsecode.com/pix/learn.gif
Here’s one that adds a whole lot of complexity, invents a few new characters – in the form of “Abbreviated Numerals” and refers to Pro-Signs with phrases, “Closing Down” is apparently the same as the Pro-Sign “SK”: https://i0.wp.com/wildernessarena.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/The-International-Morse-Code.jpg?resize=1024%2C769
This one adds the International Phonetic alphabet, but is inconsistent in its use, compare “Niner” and “One”, or “Four”: https://www.otasurvivalschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Morse-Code-and-Phonetic-Chart.jpg
If you think the representative bodies make it easier for you, nope. The ARRL has this abomination – which you can’t even link to, under “Morse Code Alphabet”: http://www.arrl.org/learning-morse-code
The WIA in Australia doesn’t appear to have a reference, referring you to the FISTS Down Under Morse Preservation Society, which also doesn’t actually appear to have a reference. The regulator in Australia, the ACMA has this as a reference, but appears to have invented a few new signals – “End of Transmission”, for example: https://www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Spectrum/Radiocomms-licensing/Apparatus-licences/morse-code-signals
This abomination finds its way onto social media every few weeks: http://www.learnmorsecode.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ditdah.png
Here’s a marginally better version, which actually shows the code in order: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/latin-alphabet-in-international-morse-code-vector-9898048
This one is labelled for survival, so you know it’s good: https://survivalized.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MorseCodeAlphabet.jpg
This invents the number “10” in the name of poetry: https://thatsmaths.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/morse-code-symbols.jpg?w=553&h=411
This appears to be what was state of the art in 1916 to educate the Girl Guides with: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Morse_Code_Mnemonic_chart_from_Girl_Guides_handbook_1916.jpg
This one introduces a “fraction bar”, whatever that is, or a “parenthesis”, not sure which one or how to use it, not to mention that the dits are bigger than the dahs: https://www.omniglot.com/images/writing/morsecode.gif
This one is from the Encyclopaedia, so you “know” it’s “right”: https://cdn.britannica.com/668×448/87/2787-004-637257B2.jpg
This one has lots of pretty colours: https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~dwharder/Morse_code/images/examples.png
This one helps you understand by showing both the UPPER and lower case letters: https://de.tek.com/sites/default/files/media/image/morse%20code.jpg
It’s always helpful to refer to symbols by their name, so you know which one it is: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~caleb/aa7ou/ham_pages/images/morseb4.gif
It’s important to get numbers right if you’re playing Call of Duty, but don’t stress about the letters: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/callofduty/images/f/f0/Morse_Code_Guide_IW.png/revision/latest?cb=20170425145920
If you prefer power-point, there’s 16 pages here: https://www.slideshare.net/JosephAmes1/introduction-to-the-international-morse-code
Nothing like switching from one type of Morse to another, or introducing new terms: https://st3.depositphotos.com/1032239/16730/v/1600/depositphotos_167302398-stock-illustration-morse-code-letters-and-numbers.jpg
By the time you’ve figured out which letter came past, you’ll have died of old age: https://www.dcode.fr/tools/morse/images/tree-dot.png
Apparently if you use dots to make a font, that’s Morse too: https://creativemarket.com/funfontshop/250620-Morse-Code-Font
This one was missing some bits, so they were scribbled in: https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/df016c5a-bd7e-4e40-997c-87d853942311.jpg
Apparently it’s OK to use the same code for a T and a 0, as well as for a 5 and an S (this is American Morse, historical interest only): https://www.willowbunchtelegraphoffice.ca/media/american_morse_code.png
And then there’s this one. Words fail to express (NOT American Morse, check out the A and the N): http://cdn1us.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeekus/files/2016/11/the-walking-dead-morse-code-michonne.jpg
My point?
Well, it’s hard enough to learn the code, but a definitive reference I have yet to find that shows all the code, with their standard symbols, the pro-signs, their usage and meaning.
Should it really be this hard?
Edit: Added the hilarity that the Walking Dead TV Series contributed to the conversation.
Edit 2: Pointed out that the Walking Dead chart is actually wrong, not just American Morse.
FINAL NOTE: The definitive reference—for the International Morse Code, anyway—is ITU Recommendation M.1677-1 (10/2009) – International Morse Code. Unfortunately, the standard does not have a chart like the ones above.
You should check out the original post. If you’re interested in this kind of thing, the comments are worth reading.
Lane says
Charts can be a downer. Learning morse code by symbols just slows you down. Morse is best learned by whole letters and numbers, not symbols! HEARING AND WRITING is the key. As you progress you will graduate from paper to hearing whole words at once!
Walter Underwood says
I don’t think the dah-dit tree is meant for learning Morse, but it does show that the code efficiently uses the code space. It is close to optimal. An optimal code would swap some of the numbers with the punctuation codes, but that would be harder to learn.
The Wikipedia entry on Morse has a more thorough tree and properly includes a link to Huffman Coding, a provably optimal code.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code#Alternative_display_of_common_characters_in_International_Morse_code
Walter Underwood says
Interestingly, none of these is the chart that I learned from in 1970. That one had the dots and dashes in the letter shapes, with the letters in frequency order: ETAOIN SHRDLU.
Larry Koziel says
If I recall correctly, when I first saw the learnmorsecode.com “tree” chart, it was an illustration how one might design a software algorithm to decode Morse by deciding whether each element in sequence was a dit or dah. It was not intended to illustrate how a person should learn Morse.
73,
Larry K8MU
Walter Underwood says
Found another one. This is the alphabet only, but the few I checked out are correct. Clever, if not generally helpful.
https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2022/02/25/morse-code-in-musical-notation/