Morse Code Punctuation
by John Shannon, K3WWP
With the introduction of the new Morse code group for @, my friend Mark WU7F thought I should include it with my list of procedure signals for Morse code. I thought about it and concluded that @ is not really a procedure signal, but actually a punctuation character like quotes, commas, etc.
Even so, Mark had a great point about putting the new code group on my web site, thus this page of Morse code punctuation code groups was born. Of course these are the Continental Morse code groups since that is the style of Morse we use on the ham bands. American Morse afficianados will know somewhat different code groups for the symbols. There is also a bit of controversy or ambiguity among the code groups which I cover in the notes below the table.
| Symbol | Code group | Name |
|---|
| " | .-..-. | Quotation mark |
|---|
| $ | ...-..- | Dollar sign |
|---|
| ' | .----. | Apostrophe |
|---|
| ( | -.--. | Open parenthesis (1) |
|---|
| ) | -.--.- | Close parenthesis |
|---|
| [ | -.--. | Open square bracket (1) |
|---|
| ] | -.--.- | Close square bracket |
|---|
| + | .-.-. | Plus sign (2) |
|---|
| , | --..-- | Comma |
|---|
| - | -....- | Hyphen or single dash |
|---|
| . | .-.-.- | Period |
|---|
| / | -..-. | Slant |
|---|
| : | ---... | Colon |
|---|
| ; | -.-.-. | Semicolon (3) |
|---|
| = | -...- | Equal sign or double dash (4) |
|---|
| ? | ..--.. | Question mark |
|---|
| @ | .--.-. | At symbol |
|---|
| _ | ..--.- | Underline |
|---|
| ¶ | .-.-.. | Paragraph |
|---|
| ! | ---. | Exclamation point (5) |
|---|
Notes:
(1) - The close parenthesis code group is often used for both open and close parentheses and square brackets.
(2) - You'll recognize this to be the same as AR - the end of transmission procedure signal.
(3) - This is also listed in some sources as -.-.- but I believe -.-.-. is official.
(4) - The same as BT - the break in text procedure signal.
(5) - Commonly used, but not official in the Continental Morse code. It's taken from the official American Morse code group. The symbol -.-.-- (KW) is also used by hams. Since neither is used very often, the choice is ultimately yours.
