Learn Morse Code in 20 Lessons

You want to learn Samuel F. B. Morse’s (shown here) most famous code. The South Canadian Amateur Radio Society (SCARS) wants to help. Mark Kleine N5HZR developed this series of web pages to help you learn the 40 characters of the International Morse Code in about 20 lessons. Additionally, you can continue to practice hearing your code for another 20 lessons. In the first lesson, we introduce two characters, the letters K and M. Think of this as if you’re learning the sounds ‘momma’ and ‘dada’ as an infant. You’ll listen to these characters, learning to hear and differentiate their two sounds. Then, you’ll come back every day (or two) and listen to 2 new characters in 5 lessons of 5 minutes each. You don’t have to listen to all 5 at one time. You can listen to a couple of the 5-minute sessions at breakfast, one at lunch, and the last two in the evening. Make each lesson enjoyable, and you’ll have a better experience.

Each day you’ll build on the characters you already know. During the first week, you may feel frustrated, or you may have trouble hearing each character. However, by day 5 or so, you will notice that the characters are ‘slowing down,’ and you can differentiate the characters. In reality, you’re simply learning to hear these tones quicker.

You should concentrate on how each character sounds and don’t rely on a visual representation of the code. Listen to the characters, and hear the rhythm of each one. You will hear Morse Code sent at 20 Words Per Minute (WPM), sent at full speed, from the very first lesson. These tones are purposely sent too fast to count the beeps. You should be training your ear to hear the character’s sound like you hear the sound of a word. Listen when you can concentrate on what you’re doing and not overburdened with other activities. Remember, this should be fun. Enjoy the process. So, when you’re ready, sign up for the free reminder emails right here, and start with lesson 1. We hope you’ll make it through the 40 lessons and Learn Morse!

Email Notifications

The best way to learn Morse Code is to spend 30 minutes a day listening to code. The best way to make that happen is to have someone else remind you to do it. Enter your email address, and click SUBMIT to start receiving these messages.

Your email address is the only required information.

How many days would you like between each email message?

What hour of the day ( timezone) would you like to receive your email reminder?

Would you like the full class, or only the practice sets?

We will not sell your contact information. We will simply send you reminders for one lesson cycle of 40 lessons.

Connect With Us On Facebook

As you learn Morse Code, you may have questions or get frustrated. To provide you with a way to connect with others learning Morse Code, join the LearnMorse Facebook Group.

Daily Learning Schedule

Here are the individual lessons, so you can go directly to the page you want to learn. The best way is to start at the beginning and work your way down the line. However, if your training gets interrupted, you may want to start back in midstream. You can restart your email notifications from any of the lesson pages.

Full Character Practice Sets

In these last 20 lessons, you listen to QSO’s, Quotes from Famous People, Random Words, and text from the NASA Apollo 11 moon mission. These sets let you improve your listening and writing skills using real-world words instead of random jibberish. Feel free to come back here and brush up your skills later in life. Start here if you already know the code and want to brush up on your listening skills.

Use Twitter to Find Pages

Morse Code is fun and easy to learn. However, what’s hard is to remember to spend the 30 minutes each day to practice. Now we’ve created a Twitter account that has each day posted to provide the proper link and a reminder to practice your code. Follow Learn Morse or use #LearnMorse and you’ll see the 40 messages.

The Art and Science of Radio Telegraphy

If you really want to know the details about how to learn Morse Code, you need to read The Art and Sound of Radio Telegraphy by William G. Pierpont N0HFF. This 211-page document goes into every endless detail about learning Morse Code. Pierpont’s information seems to match what happens here in the Learn Morse program. There’s a ton of historical information available in that document, but by the time you read that document, you could probably already be copying 20 WPM code. Learn the code, then read that manual, if you’ve got time.