Morse timing & WPM

Morse timing is measured in dit units. A dah is three dits long. Gaps inside a character, between characters, and between words are standardized multiples of the dit.

Unit table (standard)

Element	Units
Dit	1
Dah	3
Intra-character gap	1
Inter-character gap	3
Word gap	7

PARIS standard

The word “PARIS” plus a trailing word space is defined as 50 dit-units. That yields:

dit_ms = 1200 / WPM

Use the free WPM calculator to convert either way.

Farnsworth stretch

When learning, keep dit_ms fixed for your character WPM and increase inter-character (and sometimes word) gaps. See Farnsworth timing.