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Show HN: Silly Morse code chat app using WebSockets

Show HN: Silly Morse code chat app using WebSockets

17 comments

ยทOctober 18, 2025

My dad just bought a new printer. I joked and asked if it also had fax and a scanner. He said yes, not realizing I was making fun of him, so I asked if it also supported Morse code. That made it clear :) Anyway, I decided to take the joke too far and build a silly Morse code chat app for fun.

NSUserDefaults

Better add a profanity filter quick. /s

nickcw

That is quite fun! Not a lot of people know morse code so there is a lot of QRM (man made interference).

It is amazing how good the human brain is picking out signal from the noise.

I did spot one other Ham a fellow Brit (G4) but didn't complete a QSO (a contact). 73 (kind regards) de M5NCW

sandwell

That might have been me! There were one or two M stations there. I heard a couple of stations calling CQ. Very difficult to pick out signals without any filtering.

73 de G4IYT :)

keepamovin

Damn I wish i knew morse code. I have no idea what this mean hahaha

ngc6677

Fun! Would be nice to have an automatic translator built in, or already the alphabet.

Btw, for emacs users, there is a `morse-region` and `unmorse-region` https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MorseCode to play with

sandwell

Very cool. It does get a bit chaotic when there are a number of people keying. If there was the ability to add a narrow filter then it could be usable for a QSO (radio contact)!

There are some other apps designed for having QSOs - VBand[1] and Vail Repeater[2].

Finally if you want to learn to use morse code on the air check out Long Island CW Club[3]

[1]: https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ [2]: https://vailmorse.com/ [3]: https://longislandcwclub.org/

merelysounds

Somewhat related, my iOS app[1] has a morse code reference and lets you train, it could be useful here.

Its backstory is also a bit silly, it started as the simplest app idea I could think of; I posted more about it recently[2].

[1]: https://apps.apple.com/app/simple-morse-tool/id873021583

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45569321

call_me_bunny

This is good fun - any way of getting the alphabet on the screen for quick reference?

wartywhoa23

Not so much a communication tool but more like a realtime music collab one :)

Feels like a meeting on a remote island shore where nobody understands each other's language, but it's still hella fun :)

Xorger23

Pretty neat. It would be cool if it had an automatic decoder

hshdhdhehd

Thats layer 0 let's build a TCP stack on it.

halb

Very cool! I built something similar a long time ago: https://morse.halb.it and it blows my mind that it's actually being used by people

mapasj

Really nice graphic design. If you build it out more, maybe you can teach users Morse code. Maybe a toggle button for decoding the dots and dashes.

keepamovin

That is super cool and fun. Well done. :)