Should you learn Morse code in 2026?

Maybe! Perhaps you would like a longer explanation?

If you follow me on (anti)social media you will have noticed that I play a game called "Morsle". Morsle is like the word game "Wordle", that I also play, but it's all in Morse code. You may have noticed that I can occasionally solve the "Morsle" game at 40 W.P.M. All this suggests I like Morse Code and enjoy using it.

I also play "Quiz of the Day" and "MapTap". My wife and I like playing games, we hope it's holding off senility for a bit longer.

After I got my Ham Radio A Class licence I ventured onto the air. My first QSO was with a home brew CW transceiver. I had a scrappy QSO with a station in Redcarr, up North. I don't recall his call sign. Somewhere I have the QSL card.

A quick aside: The home brew transceiver was a G-QRP Club design, a direct conversion RX and TX, crystal controlled and pulled a few KHz either side of the QRP calling on 7.030 Mhz. Nothing complicated. I had set myself the challenge of having my first contact in CW and with a radio I had built.

What I realised quite quickly was my radio had serious limitations. Also, that I had limitations. I also realised that I didn't like CW QSOs.

I have a Ham Radio licence because other people gave up their time to help me pass the exams. It strikes me as rude and ungrateful if I just abandon all that work and just go play radio on SSB, and more recently Digital. I feel obliged to to continue with CW. I would feel guilty if I stopped. So from time to time I have a CW QSO, just because I can.

To return to my comment about learning Morse Code: Maybe.

If all you are interested in is having as many QSOs and want to work DX then the Digital modes like FT8 will knock the socks off CW and by a wide margin. FT8 can resolve a signal at -24 dB. CW it's about -10, and for highly skilled operator (so very few of us and definitely not me) -15 dB. Given the noisy environments most of us have to live with digital is the way to go. Sad but true.

A few decades back my advice would have been learn CW. That's where the DX is. Not so much now.

These days the DXpeditions are using FT8. (It's ruining Amateur radio!). They also use SSB and CW. Pick you mode.

Not long after I gave up with my home brew radio efforts I bought a Trio TS-120V, a QRP TRX. Nice radio. Sadly it was stolen when my house was burgled.

Armed with this much better radio I was after the DX. There was a DXpedition to Heard Island in 1983. Heard Island is an uninhabited, sub-Antarctic volcanic island in the arse end of nowhere and then a bit further. Ideal DXpedition material. I called and called the station with my meagre 20 Watts to no avail. I had sort of given up and was twiddling the VFO looking for a free frequency to call CQ. 14.030 MHz CW. I put out a couple of calls and then was called by VK0JS. I worked him, thinking, interesting call, sounds familiar. Then this wall of sound blasted my ears as the whole world started calling him. Absolute fluke, the DX had called me.

There is one very valid reason to learn Morse Code: Because you want to! You want to keep the old skills alive. It's a sad fact that the CW sections of the bands are noticeably quieter in the last few years. All those Hams who learnt CW back when it was mandatory are getting older, and many are literal silent keys.

I would describe CW as "communication of the last resort". If everything else has failed you can use Morse Code. People trapped have banged out an SOS. Hostages have blinked message when they have been paraded by their captors on television. It might be useful if the SHTF.

In our modern world it is relatively easy to learn Morse Code. Apps exist for a smart phone. Instead of scrolling AI slop on the internet, why not pop some ear buds in and spend 15 minutes a day practicing Morse Code? Give it a few weeks and you should start to get the hang of it. If you like it then go to classes to learn to send. You need someone to point out your sending mistakes. See my footnote about sending errors.

So why don't I like CW QSOs? They are kind of slow and tedious. Some things grab your attention, some things leave you cold. For me CW is sub zero cold.

After this rather long and rambling essay about Morse Code I will provide this last opinion: All Radio Amateurs should have a go at learning Morse Code. I am not suggesting making it mandatory again. I am just appealing to you, give it a go. Our heritage is in Morse Code, it's where it all started, lets keep it alive as long as possible.

Kind Regards
Ron
G4LMN

FOOT NOTES

Sending errors. Dick G4LDZ,(now a silent key), was a big CW enthusiast. He made a common sending error with the numbers 4 and 9.
4 is Dit dit dit dit dah
9 is dah dah dah dah dit.
The common error is getting the spacing wrong and putting too long a gap after the last dit, 4 or dah, 9. This is less likely if you use an electronic paddle as that does the spacing for the operator. Dick was a straight key operator so his call sign sounded like GHTLDZ instead of G4LDZ. When I worked him I always sent his call as GHTLDZ and he picked up on it and had a go at me at a club meeting. I told him that's how he sent his call but he didn't believe me! I recorded him sending and played it to him. He was unimpressed! Poor Dick, he was an odd person, the sort that inhabit many clubs! RIP mate.

From time to time there are Straight Key events. The idea is simple, don't use computers, paddles, bug keys, instead use a straight key. A brass pounder as they are known, The quality of CW in these events is terrible. The old skills are fading fast.

You can usually spot an operator using a Vibroplex Bug Key. The dits are sent way too fast and the dahs are too long. Lovely keys, but I could never get the hang of using one.

Samuel Morse did not invent the modern code we use today. Morse just wanted to send numbers, and he was devising a system to send common expressions with a pair of numbers. We still use this idea, 73 = best wishes. It was Alfred Vail who picked up on the idea and refined it. He abandoned it over the money, Morse apparently wouldn't pay him. The "code" we use today was created by Friedrich Gerke. Morse Code is technically not a code. In my opinion we should call it "Gerke Communication". It's unlikely to catch on.