Why your Morse letters run together, and how to fix spacing

Your Morse letters run together because the silence between them is too short. The gap between two letters should last three units, as long as a dah; cut it to one and the listener hears one longer character instead of two. A, .-, and N, -., sent with no real gap between them come out as .--., which is P. The fix is to treat the gap as the last part of the letter you just sent, over-space on purpose while you retrain, and check your sending with a recording or a decoder.

What running together sounds like

The listener cannot know what you meant. A merged pair either becomes another character or becomes nothing at all, and both cost you the word.

You meant	Sent closed up	Heard as
AN	.--.	P
IN	..-.	F
ON	----.	9
AT	.--	W
HE	.....	5
DE	-...	B
TH	-....	6
EN	.-.	R
NT	-.-	K

Several of these pairs, TH, HE, IN and AN, sit inside some of the commonest words in English: THE, IN and AND. That is why the fault shows up so fast. Close up the T and H and THE turns into 6E. Close up the first two letters of AND and it reads PD.

Short letters are the worst for it. E, T, I, A and N have so little shape of their own that, without a full gap on either side, they simply join whatever is next to them.

The merges you want

A prosign is a run-together made on purpose: two letters sent as one character, with no letter gap. AR, the end of a message, is A and R joined, .-.-.. SK is S and K joined, ...-.-. SOS is sent as one character, ...---.... So as you fix your spacing, leave these alone. Morse code prosigns explained: AR, SK, BT, KN and more lists the rest.

Why the gaps shrink

• Your mind is already on the next letter. You know what comes next, your hand wants to get there, and the silence after a letter feels like wasted time.
• Silence does not feel like sending. Learners count dits and dahs. Few count the gaps, so the gaps are what gives way.
• You pushed the speed. When you go faster than you can manage, the dits and dahs keep their shape longer than the gaps do. The gaps get squeezed first.
• The keyer looks after timing, so you stop thinking about it. Paddles and a keyer time the dits, the dahs and the gaps inside each character, which can give the feeling that all the timing is handled. On a basic keyer it is not: the keyer does not know where you meant one letter to end, so that pause is still yours.

Word gaps: the same fault, one level up

Between words you need 7 units, a little more than twice a letter gap. At 15 WPM that is 560 milliseconds, more than half a second, which feels like a long time to sit still with your hand on a key.

When word gaps shrink, words run into each other. IT IS HERE becomes ITIS HERE, or with a gap halfway between, the listener is left unsure where one word ends. A person can sometimes sort it out from context. A decoder cannot, and neither can anyone copying callsigns, figures or anything that is not ordinary English.

The opposite fault exists too: a pause in the middle of a letter splits it. C, -.-., with a hesitation after its first dah-dit, is heard as N N. K, -.-, split the same way, becomes N and T. The drills below help with both.

Drills that put the gap back

1. Pair against merge. Take the table above and send each pair next to the letter it turns into: AN, then P, then AN, then P. Then IN and F, AT and W, HE and 5. The only difference between AN and P is a gap of two extra units, and after a few rounds your hand and your ear both know it.

2. Name the letter in the gap. After each letter, say its name in your head before you start the next: A, then “A”, then N. It gives the gap something to do, so it stops being the part you rush.

3. Over-space for a week. Send everything with letter gaps that feel too long, nearly double. Gaps that are a little long slow you down but rarely change the text, so this is a safe direction to err in. When your hand stops rushing, let the gaps drift back to normal on their own.

4. Word gaps on purpose. Send short words that are full of merge pairs, such as IT IS AN INN AT TEN, and between words lift your hand off the key and rest it for a moment. Short words put a word gap after every second or third letter, so you get plenty of practice in very little time.

5. Listen to well-spaced Morse. Copying Morse with correct spacing, or with Farnsworth spacing, where the gaps are deliberately longer, teaches your ear what the gap should sound like, and your hand tends to follow your ear. Farnsworth spacing: what it is and when to drop it explains the stretched gaps.

Check it from the outside

You cannot hear your own spacing reliably while you send, because you already know what you meant.

Record a minute and copy it the next day. Write down exactly what you hear, P where you heard P, and compare with the text. Each wrong letter that matches a pair in the table is a gap that went missing.

Send into a decoder. A decoder reads only your timing and is never charitable. Close up AN and it prints P, at once, and there is nothing to argue about. That instant feedback is the fastest way to feel how long three units is. How to practice sending Morse code on your own covers both kinds of check in a full session.

On a Mac, Dot & Dash does the decoding part. Key a message in Write, with Space or the knob on its machine as a straight key, and watch it decode as you go. With the straight key it reads you at your own speed, learning the length of your dit as you key. Its Listening drill can send to you with Farnsworth spacing, for drill 5.

For the numbers behind all of this, Morse code timing: the 1, 3, 7 rule for dits, dahs and gaps has the full table.

Questions

Why does my AN come out as P?

A is .- and N is -.. With only a one-unit gap between them they form .--., which is P. Give the gap three units, the length of a dah.

How long should the gap between Morse letters be?

Three units, the same as a dah: 180 milliseconds at 20 WPM and 300 milliseconds at 12 WPM. Between words it is seven units.

Is it better for gaps to be too long than too short?

While you are learning, yes. Long gaps slow you down but rarely change the text; short ones turn letters into other letters.

Do prosigns break the spacing rule?

Yes, on purpose. A prosign is sent as one character with no letter gap, so AR is .-.-. and SOS is ...---....