Morse Code Decoder Features:

• Decodes microphone input to text.
• Includes signal level and audio frequency spectrum viewers.
• Automatic audio tone frequency detection.
• Optional narrow-band audio filter for manual frequency selection.
  Audio Tone Frequency range: 300 to 1400 Hz
  Just tap on a frequency peak in the spectrum viewer to manually set the filter frequency.
• Decoding range from 4 to 40 WPM (Normal mode).
• Automatic or Manual WPM setting on iPad.
• Automatic WPM detection on iPhone and iPod Touch.
  NOTE: If you use automatic tone frequency or WPM detection, it may take several successive characters (containing both dits and dahs) in a row before decoding starts to detect characters properly.
• Configuration option for QRQ decoding (40 to 80+ WPM).
• Configuration option for Farnsworth timing.
• Automatic or Manual decode threshold level setting.
  Configurable depending on the input (microphone) volume level and the signal-to-noise ratio.
• Signal-to-noise-floor Histogram.
  The signal level Histogram is next to the signal level waveform viewer.

Morse Code Decoder Pro

The Pro version of the iOS Morse Decoder (available from the iOS App Store) also continuously saves the previous 1 minute of audio to allow re-decoding using new settings. This is useful if one misses some decoded text because the WPM or tone frequency was set inaccurately.

Morse Code Ringtone Maker

Morse Code Ringtone Maker can create ringtones containing your own customized Morse Code messages. Be different... don't bore people with yet another pop tune ringtone for your iPhone.

(* Apple does not allow custom ringtones to be installed directly to an iPhone from an app. Instead the ringtones you create using Morse Code Ringtone Maker need to be installed on your iPhone either using iTunes (on a Mac), or using the Garageband iOS app, which requires multiple steps to create and install a ringtone. See typical 3rd party instructions here and here.
You can also use newer releases of iTunes to install your ringtones. See here.)

Morse2Text

The Morse2Text converts Morse code tapping on your iPhone touchscreen into text. You can use this app to input text to your iPhone without looking at the display. Copy the text to use in another app, or email it directly from the app. Both straight key and an iambic keying mode are supported.

Text2Morse

Text2Morse translates text into high quality Morse Code sounds. Configurable WPM, Farnsworth timing and tone frequency.

MorseTest

MorseTest generates 5 character random letter groups from a configurable letter set and at a configurable WPM to help one learn to hear and receive Morse Code. Both the the number of characters to be used and the order of new characters added are configurable for study using the Koch method. Word and dot timing are independently configurable to allow using Farnsworth timing.

Morse Words

Morse Words randomly plays the 250 most common English words in Morse Code. Configurable WPM, timing and tone.

Morse Code Key

MorseKey is a Free app available from the App store. Tap and it will generate an audio tone. Both straight key and an iambic keying mode are supported.

Mac OS X Apps

Morse Decoder

The HotPaw CW Morse Decoder for the Mac in the Mac App Store.
The features and capabilities of this Mac OS X app are the same as that of the Morse Decoder app for iOS. See the description of the Morse Code Decoder for iPhone/iPad above.

Software Defined Radio

rtl_tcp SDR

The rtl_tcp SDR iOS app turns your iPhone or iPad into a portable Software Defined Radio with a waterfall spectrum analyzer. Connect, via the rtl_tcp network protocol, to a networked RTL-SDR USB peripheral, and us your iOS device to listen to FM and VHF radio signals. (Requires that you have an RTL-SDR, plus a server such as a Raspberry Pi 3. A beta-test server for the Airspy HF+ is also available.)
SDR Readme documentation.

Basic Programming Apps

HotPaw Basic for iOS

HotPaw Basic (in the iOS App Store)

Write and run Old-Fashioned Basic programs on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. HotPaw Basic for iOS is very similar to the popular Chipmunk Basic in BASIC programming language support and features.

• Some Preliminary Documentation on HotPaw Basic for iOS
• The Chipmunk Basic Programming Reference Manual

• Both HotPaw Basic for iOS and Chipmunk Basic for Mac OS include a built-in morse command to convert string text to Morse code audio. (WPM is fully configurable. Farnsworth mode is also supported.)

What is Morse Code ?

Morse Code is an encoding or modulation scheme used for telegraph and radio communication. It is still used in Amateur Radio for the CW mode of transmission, as well as in aviation navigation aids (such as VORs) and other identification beacons.

In Morse Code audio, the timing of a sequence of short and longer audio tones is used to represent each character of a text message. (For instance, a short tone, say at 700 Hz, followed by a tone 3 times longer, and separated by a short gap of silence, represents the letter 'A'). Using sequences of short dots and longer dashes for Morse Code dates back to around 1840, when is was created by Samual Morse and Alfred Vail for use with their invention of the telegraph (several decades before the invention of the telephone). At first, Morse thought that dots and dashes would have to be transcribed onto paper tape to be received, but it was found the telegraph operators quickly learned how to copy down Morse Code messages just by listening to the clicking sounds the code made as the relays or electromagnets opened and closed.

Morse Code was heavily used, not only for sending telegraph messages, but also from the earliest days of radio communcation. Radio receivers commonly demodulate short and long bursts of constant frequency continuous wave (CW) signals into short and long audio tones. To represent short and long tones, the tones are commonly called dit and dah, instead of the written or graphed dot and dash. Up until 2007, passing a Morse Code test was required for most U.S. FCC Amateur Radio licenses. Until the late 1990's Morse Code was the International standard for maritime distress signals, but no longer so. However, Morse Code (or the CW mode) still has the narrowest bandwidth requirements for communication that can be simply decoded by a human (e.g. without a digital computer or signal processor).

Morse Code is still used in Amateur Radio communication; and several frequency bands, labeled as CW, are allocated for Morse Code.

The dot and dash encodings are now part of an ITU International Standard.

Here's a simple International Morse Code Table.

Learning to understand and copy Morse Code messages might be thought by some to be difficult. But learning Morse Code usually only requires a sufficient amount of repeated practice time, especially when using methods similar to those pioneered by Koch and Farnsworth. These training methods (simplified) allow learning the difference between just 2 or 3 character or letter sounds at a time, with extra time between at first. (My MorseTest iOS app can be used in just this way to learn just a few characters at a time.)

More Morse Code Resources

• Wikipedia Morse Code page
  
• ITU International Morse Code Standards Document
  
• ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) page on Learning Morse Code
  
• As of 2003, the ITU, and, as of 2006, the FCC no longer require passing a Morse Code test as a requirement for an Amateur Radio License.
  
• Copy of a U.S. Navy document on learning International Morse Code
  
• Omniglot Morse Code page
  
• Calculating the WPM speed and bandwidth requirements for Morse Code
• Farnsworth Timing (using longer spaces or times between characters sent at a higher WPM).
• Notes on the Koch method of learning Morse Code

About

HotPaw Productions also provides iPhone/iOS app development and DSP consulting services for the most technically challenging problems. HotPaw Productions was founded by Ron Nicholson, who was a member of the original Macintosh, Amiga, and N64 design teams, as well as one of the first PalmOS developers. Enterprise iOS apps co-architected by Mr. Nicholson include Wyse PocketCloud, which has been among the Top Grossing apps in the Business category of the iTunes App store.

Credits

Many of the HotPaw icons were created by LizDesign

Support

Disclaimers

HotPaw Production iOS apps are distributed in the hope that they might be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND; not even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS for ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.