How to measure your Morse code speed
To measure your Morse receiving speed, copy Morse sent at a known speed and find the fastest speed at which you still get about 90 percent right over a few minutes. To measure your sending speed, time yourself: send the word PARIS over and over for one minute and count how many you sent, or time any text you know and convert its length to standard words. Write down the character speed and the overall speed separately, because with Farnsworth spacing they are different numbers.
Those are two different skills, so they get two different tests. Both rest on the same definition of a word.
What the number measures
A Morse “word” in words per minute is not a real word. It is the standard word PARIS, which is exactly 50 units long, counting a dit as 1 unit, a dah as 3, the gaps inside a letter as 1, the gaps between letters as 3, and the gap after the word as 7.
That makes WPM a measure of tempo, and you can get at it three ways:
| You know | Speed in WPM |
|---|---|
| How many PARIS you sent in a minute | That number |
| A text’s length in units, and how many seconds it took | 1.2 × units ÷ seconds |
| The length of one dit in milliseconds | 1200 ÷ dit length |
All three come from the same fact: at W WPM, 50 × W units fit in a minute, so one unit lasts 1200 ÷ W milliseconds. What WPM means in Morse code, and the PARIS standard works through why.
A footnote: some practice material for code groups is timed with CODEX instead, a 60-unit word. At the same nominal WPM, CODEX timing means shorter dits (at 20 WPM, 50 ms against 60 ms), so check which word a source uses before you compare numbers.
Measuring your receiving speed
You need Morse at a speed someone else has set. Practice files labeled with their speed work, and so does a trainer or generator where you choose the speed, or a friend sending with a keyer set to a known speed. A person on a straight key is not a reliable reference, however good their fist.
Then run the test the same way every time:
- Use material you cannot guess. Random five-letter groups are the honest test. Plain English lets you fill in missed letters from context, which is a real skill but flatters the number. Five-letter groups: the Morse practice that keeps you honest explains why.
- Copy for a fixed time. Three to five minutes is long enough to smooth out a lucky or unlucky start.
- Mark it against the text. Count the characters you got right and divide by the characters sent.
- Use a fixed pass mark. The Koch method’s rule, about 90 percent, works well. Whatever you choose, keep it, or your numbers will not compare.
- Step up until you fail. Start below where you think you are and raise the speed a couple of WPM at a time. Your receiving speed is the last one you passed.
Write down how you copied as well as the speed. Copying on paper, typing and copying in your head are different skills, and the same person can have a different speed for each.
Measuring your sending speed
Method 1: PARIS for a minute. Start a stopwatch and send PARIS PARIS PARIS, with proper word gaps, for 60 seconds. The number of complete words is your speed in WPM. Send fifteen and a half and you are sending at about 15.5 WPM. It is the simplest test there is, because PARIS is the definition.
Method 2: time a known text. Any text works once you know its length in units. Count each character’s units (1 for a dit, 3 for a dah, 1 for each gap inside it), add 3 for every gap between letters and 7 after every word. For example:
| Text | Length in units | Standard words |
|---|---|---|
| PARIS | 50 | 1 |
| HELLO WORLD | 118 | 2.36 |
| THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG | 414 | 8.28 |
Send the pangram in the last row and time it. If it takes 30 seconds, your speed is 1.2 × 414 ÷ 30, or about 16.6 WPM. A stopwatch stopped on your last dit misses the final word gap, a small error over a text this long; send the text twice in a row and time both if you want it closer.
Method 3: measure your dit. Record yourself sending a few letters with a voice recording app, open the recording in an audio editor, and measure the length of several dits on the waveform. Divide 1200 by the average length in milliseconds. A 75 ms dit means you are sending characters at 16 WPM. While you are there, check that your dahs are about three dits long.
Character speed and overall speed are different measurements
Method 3 measures your character speed: how fast the dits and dahs inside each letter go. Methods 1 and 2 measure your overall speed: everything, gaps included. Comparing them tells you how you space your sending.
- Characters faster than overall. If your dits say 20 WPM but PARIS for a minute says 13, you are leaving long gaps between letters and words. While you are learning that is fine, and it is Farnsworth spacing by hand.
- The two nearly equal. Your spacing is close to standard. Check that the gaps are really 3 and 7 units, not squeezed.
- Overall faster than your dits suggest. That cannot happen with correct spacing, so your gaps are too short and letters are probably running together. Morse code timing: the 1, 3, 7 rule has the fix.
The same goes for receiving. A score at 18/10, meaning characters at 18 WPM and overall at 10, is not the same as a score at a plain 10, so record both numbers.
Keeping a record that means something
A speed is only useful next to the last one. Keep a short log, a line per test:
- the date;
- character speed and overall speed;
- the material (groups, words, plain text);
- how you copied (paper, keyboard, head);
- your accuracy.
Test every week or two, the same way each time, and at the same time of day if you can. A tired evening test against a fresh morning one tells you more about your evening than about your Morse.
If you practice on a Mac, Dot & Dash does some of this bookkeeping as you go. Its Progress shows your current speed in WPM, and for each character the speed you sent it at and the time you took to copy it by ear. In a lesson, each letter you key shows the speed you keyed it at, and with the straight key it reads you at your own pace, learning the length of your dit as you key.
Questions
How do I find out the speed of a practice file?
Files made for practice are usually labeled with their speed. If one is not, time a passage whose text you know and use 1.2 × units ÷ seconds, or measure a dit in an audio editor and divide 1200 by its length in milliseconds.
Why is my sending speed different from my receiving speed?
They are separate skills with separate limits: one is your hand’s timing, the other your ear’s recognition. It is normal for them to differ, and wise to keep your sending at or below your receiving speed.
Does words per minute count real words?
No. It counts standard words the length of PARIS, 50 units each. Real text has longer and shorter words, so a minute of conversation will not land exactly on the number.
Should I measure with Farnsworth spacing on?
You can, as long as you record both numbers. A result at 18/10 measures your recognition at an overall pace of 10 WPM with full-speed letters, which is not the same as copying a plain 10 or a plain 18.