diff --git a/Configuration.cpp b/Configuration.cpp
index bb7efdf12..79ee5c353 100644
--- a/Configuration.cpp
+++ b/Configuration.cpp
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ namespace
   // disabled
   int const combo_box_item_enabled (32 | 1);
   int const combo_box_item_disabled (0);
+
+  QRegExp message_alphabet {"[- A-Za-z0-9+./?]*"};
 }
 
 
@@ -165,6 +167,32 @@ public:
 };
 
 
+// Class MessageItemDelegate
+//
+//	Item delegate for message entry such as free text message macros.
+//
+class MessageItemDelegate final
+  : public QStyledItemDelegate
+{
+public:
+  explicit MessageItemDelegate (QObject * parent = nullptr)
+    : QStyledItemDelegate {parent}
+  {
+  }
+
+  QWidget * createEditor (QWidget * parent
+                          , QStyleOptionViewItem const& /* option*/
+                          , QModelIndex const& /* index */
+                          ) const override
+  {
+    auto editor = new QLineEdit {parent};
+    editor->setFrame (false);
+    editor->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, editor});
+    return editor;
+  }
+};
+
+
 // Fields that are transceiver related.
 //
 // These are aggregated in a structure to enable a non-equivalence to
@@ -682,7 +710,7 @@ Configuration::impl::impl (Configuration * self, QString const& instance_key, QS
   //
   ui_->callsign_line_edit->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {QRegExp {"[A-Za-z0-9/]+"}, this});
   ui_->grid_line_edit->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {QRegExp {"[A-Ra-r]{2,2}[0-9]{2,2}[A-Xa-x]{0,2}"}, this});
-  ui_->add_macro_line_edit->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {QRegExp {"[ A-Za-z0-9/?]+"}, this});
+  ui_->add_macro_line_edit->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, this});
 
   //
   // assign ids to radio buttons
@@ -736,6 +764,7 @@ Configuration::impl::impl (Configuration * self, QString const& instance_key, QS
   // setup macros list view
   //
   ui_->macros_list_view->setModel (&next_macros_);
+  ui_->macros_list_view->setItemDelegate (new MessageItemDelegate {this});
 
   macro_delete_action_ = new QAction {tr ("&Delete"), ui_->macros_list_view};
   ui_->macros_list_view->insertAction (nullptr, macro_delete_action_);
diff --git a/FrequencyItemDelegate.hpp b/FrequencyItemDelegate.hpp
index 5d35a9a0a..55ec3b099 100644
--- a/FrequencyItemDelegate.hpp
+++ b/FrequencyItemDelegate.hpp
@@ -3,9 +3,6 @@
 
 #include <QStyledItemDelegate>
 
-class QStyleOptionItemView;
-class QWidget;
-class QModelIndex;
 class Bands;
 
 //
diff --git a/mainwindow.cpp b/mainwindow.cpp
index 9b035bdad..69e217c4d 100644
--- a/mainwindow.cpp
+++ b/mainwindow.cpp
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@
 
 #include <QThread>
 #include <QLineEdit>
-#include <QRegularExpression>
+#include <QRegExpValidator>
+#include <QRegExp>
 #include <QDebug>
 #include <QtConcurrent/QtConcurrentRun>
 
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ wchar_t buffer[256];
 namespace
 {
   Radio::Frequency constexpr default_frequency {14076000};
+  QRegExp message_alphabet {"[- A-Za-z0-9+./?]*"};
 }
 
 class BandAndFrequencyItemDelegate final
@@ -239,6 +241,15 @@ MainWindow::MainWindow(bool multiple, QSettings * settings, QSharedMemory *shdme
   connect (&m_config, &Configuration::transceiver_update, this, &MainWindow::handle_transceiver_update);
   connect (&m_config, &Configuration::transceiver_failure, this, &MainWindow::handle_transceiver_failure);
 
+  // set up message text validators
+  ui->tx1->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, this});
+  ui->tx2->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, this});
+  ui->tx3->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, this});
+  ui->tx4->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, this});
+  ui->tx5->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, this});
+  ui->tx6->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, this});
+  ui->freeTextMsg->setValidator (new QRegExpValidator {message_alphabet, this});
+
   // Free text macros model to widget hook up.
   ui->tx5->setModel (m_config.macros ());
   connect (ui->tx5->lineEdit ()