FAQ

Sound Problems

These tools are known to work well in the latest desktop and mobile versions of Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Safari and Edge web browsers (which implement the Web Audio API and can be downloaded here). They may work, with some sound artefacts and some features disabled, in Internet Explorer 11 (where Flash is required).

However, if you are having strange problems with the sound, it's almost always worth trying a different web browser in case that helps.

Apple iPod, iPad and iPhone

You may find that sound can be heard through headphones but not through the speakers. If this is the case then:

  1. Check whether any sound plays through the speaker when there are no headphones plugged in. If not, then the device believes the headphones are still plugged in and the headphone socket needs cleaning (e.g. with compressed air).
  2. The device may have a physical "mute" switch on the side which mutes the ringer. Make sure that the device is unmuted. The button is labelled "ring/silent" in these diagrams: make sure that you cannot see orange within the button.
  3. Newer iPad devices have a "soft mute" button accessed by swiping up from the bottom of an iPad. You will find a bell icon which may or may not have a line through it. Either way, tap it to see if that unmutes and helps.
  4. If you have a broken mute button on an iPhone then there is still hope! Please see these video instructions for unmuting iPhones.

Unfortunately you must make sure the screen stays on while using the tools that play sound. As soon as the screen turns off, all sound will stop.

Android Devices

There is no need to keep the screen on when using an Android device, unless you are also using the speech synthesis function (e.g. the "Say it" button setting). For some reason, if speech is enabled and the screen turns off then all sound will stop. The tools try to force the screen to stay on when speech synthesis is being used so if you notice that your screen is not turning off, then this is likely to be the cause.

Initial Sound Clipping

Some people report that the initial "dit" is missing or an initial "dah" is played as a "dit". There are a couple of reasons:

  1. The audio system in some browsers takes a few milliseconds to "warm up" and so the start is clipped.
  2. There is a known problem with Bluetooth headphones (BLE ones in particular) on all devices: to conserve energy the sound cuts out when nothing is playing and then does not reconnect immediately.

In both cases, you may try adjusting the "start-up delay" in the "advanced timing" controls (present on most pages). This configures a delay put in between pressing the "Play" button and the first sound starting. The audio system is started when "Play" is pressed so it provides a chance for other parts to activate. If you are using Bluetooth headphones, the other option is of course to try wired headphones or the speaker.

Downloads

The download button downloads a WAV file of the active sound with a pause at the end defined by the segment gap. Some versions of Safari do not properly support the download button but it can be made to work in the desktop version by holding the Option key when clicking it and then saving the file with the ".wav" file extension.

Speech Synthesis

The choice of voices available for speech synthesis is determined by the combination of your web browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox) and operating system (e.g. Windows, MacOS, Android). The software will try to choose a sensible default voice matching your local language setting. If you load a file with settings in and with a voice defined the voice in use may or may not be changed, depending if the one in the settings file matches one that you have available on your system.

Getting the Latest Version

Your web browser will cache a copy of each page you visit to reduce download time. This means that sometimes you will not see the latest version of one of the pages. The tools on the pages do not have version numbers, but normally the in-page "Change log" will indicate when there has been a new feature added along with the date so this can help. To get the latest version, you need to force your web browser to retrieve a fresh copy.

Windows desktop
For Chrome, Firefox, Brave and Edge, open the page and press Crtl-Shift-R to do a "hard reload".
Android phones/tablets
For Chrome, follow these instructions to clean "Cached images and files", but note that you do not need to clean "Cookies and other site data".
iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch
For Safari, follow these instructions.

Other Questions

Can you tell me what [insert some text or sound file here] means?
No, sorry. I don't know Morse code. You might like to try the audio decoder to see if it can understand your sound file though.
Can I see the source code?
The Javascript library supporting the software on this site can be found on Github.
How can I save the sound files on my computer to play again later?
Just press the download button and you will download the sound as a WAV file. In desktop Safari you may need to hold down the Option key when you click the button and then save the file with the ".wav" file extension.
How long have you been interested in ham radio?
Don't take this the wrong way, but I do not actually know Morse code myself! I am very happy to support the wonderful community and provide useful tools to others though. I find the technologies behind the tools interesting to learn and experiment with and have been developing them since the 1990's.
I love your web site and all this morse code stuff. Can I give you lots of money?
Unfortunately this isn't really a frequently asked question! If you would really like to show your appreciation then send a postcard to my address! You can also use the button below:

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