Morse code and ham radio: why learn it in 2026?

Let's clear the obvious question first: no, Morse code is no longer part of the amateur radio exam. Not in the UK, not in the US, not in France, not in the vast majority of countries.

And yet, in 2026, CW — the name hams give to Morse, short for continuous wave — remains one of the most practised modes on the HF bands. There is a very concrete reason for that paradox.

The licence exam no longer tests Morse

Until the early 2000s, a Morse test gated access to the HF bands. It was an international requirement, written into Article 25 of the ITU Radio Regulations.

The 2003 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-03) removed that obligation and left each administration free to keep it or drop it. The result came fast:

• The UK dropped the test in 2003.
• The US abandoned it in February 2007, for every licence class.
• France removed it too; the current exam is a technical paper plus a regulations paper, with no Morse component.

You can therefore be a fully licensed amateur without knowing a single letter in Morse. (Formats change over time — always check your regulator's current rules before registering: Ofcom, the FCC, the ANFR.)

In other words: Morse went from an administrative requirement to an operator's choice. And that is precisely what saved it.

Why CW is still king when conditions get hard

A voice (SSB) signal occupies roughly 2.7 kHz of bandwidth. A CW signal occupies on the order of 100 to 200 Hz, and the receiver can close down onto a matching narrow filter.

At identical power you therefore concentrate your energy into a band ten to twenty times narrower while cutting out proportionally as much of the noise reaching the receiver. That's the ~10 dB advantage operators talk about — roughly the equivalent of multiplying your power by ten without changing any hardware.

On the air: where your correspondent becomes inaudible on SSB, they still come through on CW — and a 5-watt rig does the work of a 50-watt voice station.

"But FT8 does better, doesn't it?"

Yes and no. FT8 does decode signals buried deeper in the noise than any human ear. But it exchanges a fixed data set — callsign, grid locator, report, acknowledgement — in an automated sequence. Very efficient for ticking off DXCC entities; not a conversation.

CW remains the only genuinely conversational weak-signal mode: weather, antennas, a dead soldering iron, or just hello to a Japanese operator at 3 a.m. Slow and human — and that is exactly why it attracts a generation of operators who never sat a Morse test.

Five concrete reasons to start in 2026

1. Minimal equipment. A small CW transceiver, a key, a battery, a length of wire in a tree: the lowest entry ticket in the hobby.
2. Portable operation. SOTA, POTA, mountain activations: weight matters, and CW lets you cut power, so battery.
3. Contests and DX. CW segments stay among the busiest during contests, and many DXpeditions work their pile-ups in CW.
4. Resilience. No infrastructure, no network, no software: a key, a transmitter and an ear are enough.
5. The community. CW clubs and slow-speed practice nets are active and delighted to see beginners show up.

What you actually need for a first QSO

A basic CW contact does not require "fluency". It is highly structured, and 90% of the vocabulary fits on one page:

• Q codes — QTH (location), QRZ (who is calling me?), QSL (received), QRM (interference), QRP (low power), QSY (change frequency). Details on the Q codes page.
• CW abbreviations — CQ (general call), DE (from), OM (old man), YL (young lady), TU (thank you), 73 (best regards), 88 (love and kisses).
• The RST report — three digits, e.g. 599: readability, strength, tone.
• Prosigns — AR (end of message), SK (end of contact), KN (named station only), BT (separator). See the prosigns page.

The sequence is always the same: CQ CQ CQ DE <callsign> K, a reply, an exchange of RST + name + QTH, then 73 and SK. Master that skeleton and you can work any country on earth without sharing a language. That's CW's real superpower.

The Mission Morse path to your first QSO

Chapters 1 to 5 are free for life: full alphabet, digits and the iconic words (SOS, CQ, OK). That foundation is already enough to read a band.

After that, two premium chapters are built specifically for the step into ham radio:

• Chapter 9 — Real QSO: Q codes and abbreviations under listening conditions — CQ, DE, QRZ, QTH, QSL, QRM, RST, 73, 88. You decode a complete contact.
• Chapter 10 — Prosigns: AR, SK, KN, AS, BT, HH — the run-together letters that structure an exchange.

Chapters 6 to 8 complete the alphabet before those two — see chapters and pricing.

FAQ

Is Morse code required for the amateur radio licence exam?

No. WRC-03 removed the international requirement written into Article 25 of the ITU Radio Regulations. The UK dropped the test in 2003, the US abandoned it in February 2007 for every licence class, and France removed it as well: its exam now consists only of a technical paper and a regulations paper.

What Morse speed do you need for a QSO?

12 to 15 wpm is enough for a relaxed contact with a patient operator — reachable in 4 to 6 weeks. Cruising speed on the bands sits between 18 and 22, while contests and DX pile-ups run at 25 and above. The classic trap is learning slowly in order to "learn properly": you learn characters at full speed and stretch the silences, which is Farnsworth timing.

Why do radio amateurs still use Morse code in 2026?

Because a CW signal occupies roughly 100 to 200 Hz against 2.7 kHz for voice. At equal power that's an advantage of about 10 dB: a 5-watt CW rig does the work of a 50-watt SSB station. CW therefore gets through when voice no longer does, with minimal equipment.

▶ Start with the alphabet, free — then move on to the QSO chapters when you're ready.