Morse code, or Continuous Wave (CW), remains as popular as ever in the ham radio community, though it’s no longer required to obtain a license. Regardless of this, many hams today are downright good at it (pat yourself on the back if you can count yourself as one of them), dominating the air space with word-per-minute speeds that exceed the abilities of most operators.
But how many symbols do you really use or even recognize on the bands? And how many symbols aren’t you using? Do you take the time to knock out the newest character, the “@” sign, or speedily spell it out? We want to know, so feel free to take a gander at our list of some of the, arguably, less commonly used Morse code phrases and characters below.
Punctuation
Period (full stop) . _ . _ . _
Comma _ _ . . _ _
Question mark . . _ _ . .
Apostrophe . _ _ _ _ .
Exclamation mark _ . _ . _ _
Slash/fraction bar _ . . _ .
Parenthesis open _ . _ _ .
Parenthesis closed _ . _ _ . _
Semicolon _ . _ . _ .
Underline/underscore . . _ _ . _
Colon or division sign _ _ _ . . .
Dash _ . . . . _
Equals sign _ . . . _
Multiplication sign _ . . _
Addition sign . _ . _ .
Plus sign . _ . _ .
“@” sign . _ _ . _ .
Hyphen/minus sign _ . . . . _
Dollar sign . . . _ . . _
Procedural Characters (Pro Signs)
Start of work _ . _ . _
Invitation to transit _ . _
End of message . _ . _ .
Error . . . . . . . .
End of work . . . _ . _
Invite for specific station to transmit _ . _ _ .
Understood . . . _ .
Acknowledgment _ . _. . . _ . _ _
Unknown station . _ . _
Roger . _ .
Over _ . _
Out . _ . _ .
Wait (a few minutes) . _ . . .
Wait out (longer than a few min.) . _ . . . . _. _.
Verified . . . _ .
Say again . . _ _ . .
Correction . . . . . . . .
Disregard this transmission . . . . . . . . . _ . _ .
Break _ . . . _
Who? _ . _ . . . . . . _ _ . .
Request time check _ _ . _ _ . _ .
Weather is . _ _ _ . . _
Number abbreviations
1 . _
2 . . _
3 . . _
4 . . . . _
5 .
6 _ . . . .
7 _ . . .
8 _ . .
9 _ .
0 _ (or sometimes the em dash)
Accented Characters
Á . _ _ . _
É . . _ . .
Ö _ _ _ .
Ä . _ . _
Ñ _ _ . _ _
Ü . . _ _
To learn the Morse code alphabet check out these study resources (including a breakdown of the Morse code alphabet) on the ARRL website. DX Engineering also has all the great gear you’ll need with keys, paddles, and tutoring tools, plus lots of study materials. And keep your head up, there’s no crying in Morse code…that would be remorse code! A little Morse code humor. 73!
