Love in Morse Code

Timing at 20 WPM

International Morse timing is measured in units: a dot is 1 unit, a dash 3, the gap inside a character 1, the gap between letters 3 and the gap between words 7. At 20 words per minute, one unit is 1200 ÷ 20 = 60 ms.

In total, LOVE is 39 units — 2.34 seconds at 20 WPM: 4 characters, 7 dots and 5 dashes. At a beginner's 5 WPM it would take 9.36 seconds.

Sound it out

Operators learn Morse as sound, not as dots to count. Say “di” for a dot inside a character, “dit” for a final dot and “dah” for a dash, with a pause between letters:

di-dah-di-dit dah-dah-dah di-di-di-dah dit

Letters in LOVE that are easy to mix up

These letters differ from the ones in LOVE by a single dot or dash — one flipped element, or one extra or missing at the end — so they are the usual misreadings when you are copying by ear or by light:

About LOVE

LOVE in Morse is ·−·· −−− ···− ·, a popular design for bracelets, rings and tattoos because it is short and has a varied rhythm: L and V mix dots and dashes, O is all dashes, and E is a single dot.

Radio operators have a numeric shorthand for affection: 88, 'love and kisses', listed in amateur clubs' guides to common CW abbreviations. If you are designing jewellery, double-check each letter against a Morse chart — L (·−··) and F (··−·) are easy to swap.

Related radio abbreviations

LOVE in other codes

Convert your own text with the Morse code translator, the NATO alphabet converter or the binary translator, or print the Morse code alphabet.

Sources

• Rochester (NY) Amateur Radio Association — Common CW Abbreviations (88)