Help in Morse Code

HELP in Morse code, letter by letter

HELP is 4 letters and 13 marks. A space separates the letters:

• H: .... (di-di-di-dit)
• E: . (dit)
• L: .-.. (di-dah-di-dit)
• P: .--. (di-dah-dah-dit)

Help me in Morse code

Help me adds one short word: .... . .-.. .--. / -- . The slash marks the longer gap between words. ME is -- . (dah-dah, dit), so it adds only three marks.

At the default 20 WPM, HELP takes about 2.2 seconds to play and HELP ME about 3.3 seconds. Help me please (.... . .-.. .--. / -- . / .--. .-.. . .- ... .) is clearer to read but nearly twice as long to send by hand.

If you searched for help me in Morse code because you want help learning it, start with learn Morse code, which starts your ear on two letters and adds one at a time.

HELP or SOS: which one to send

Send SOS when someone's life is at risk and you need to be noticed. SOS is the formal distress signal, agreed between countries in 1906, and it is sent as one unbroken run of 9 marks. Many people who can't read Morse code still recognize three short, three long, three short. SOS in Morse code covers how to send it by light, whistle and knocking.

HELP is an ordinary word. It has 13 marks in 4 letters, and the person watching has to read each letter to understand it. That makes it a good fit when someone is already paying attention to you: a friend across a room, a person on the other side of a wall, a game, a note or a puzzle.

The two work well together. Send SOS first to get attention, then HELP ME or a short detail, such as NEED A DOCTOR or TRAPPED, once someone answers. And if you can make a phone call, call your local emergency number (911 in the US) before you signal at all.

How to blink HELP

Use a quick blink for a dot and close your eyes about three times as long for a dash. Keep your eyes open for a moment between letters, and longer between words. HELP blinks like this:

• H: short, short, short, short
• E: short
• L: short, long, short, short
• P: short, long, long, short

The prisoner who blinked TORTURE

The best known message ever blinked in Morse code wasn't HELP, but it was a call for help. US Navy pilot Jeremiah Denton was shot down over North Vietnam in July 1965. On May 2, 1966, his captors had him interviewed on film by a Japanese television reporter for propaganda.

While Denton answered the questions and said he supported his government, he blinked T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code: - --- .-. - ..- .-. . His captors didn't notice. The film reached the United States, and the blinks gave US intelligence its first clear confirmation that American prisoners of war were being tortured.

Denton was held for about seven and a half years and released in February 1973. Type TORTURE into the tool and press Play to see how much one word can carry: 7 letters, 15 marks, about 3.4 seconds at 20 WPM.

How to tap HELP on a wall or a table

On a table, a shoulder or a hand, tap quickly for a dot and press and hold about three times longer for a dash. On a hard wall or a pipe, a knock has no length, so make dashes another way: a scrape, a slower and heavier thump, or a longer pause before the next knock.

That problem is real. American prisoners in Vietnam found they couldn't make a dash on concrete cell walls, so they used a tap code instead: the alphabet in a 5 by 5 grid, with each letter tapped as a row number and then a column number. It isn't Morse code, but it came from the same need.

To practice, open the Tap tab above. Tap for a dot, hold for a dash, and stop for a moment to end each letter; the tool writes the code and the text as you go. The Beginner speed preset (5 WPM) gives you more time between letters. To check code someone else tapped, paste it into the Morse code decoder.