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YYZ in Morse code

YYZ in Morse code is -.-- -.-- --... It is the figure that opens Rush's instrumental "YYZ", from the 1981 album Moving Pictures. Listen for dah-di-dah-dah twice, then dah-dah-di-dit, and you are hearing the identifier of Toronto Pearson airport, which a radio beacon there sends in Morse. The band heard it on the way home and built the song on it.

YYZ

Hear it at your speed

Speed

At 15 WPM it takes 3.4 seconds (43 units).

Letter by letter

Every letter of the phrase, with its code and how it sounds. Tap a letter to learn it.

  1. Y-.--dash dot dash dash
  2. Y-.--dash dot dash dash
  3. Z--..dash dash dot dot

“YYZ” at a glance

Letters
3
Dots and dashes
4 · 8
Length
43 units
At 20 WPM
2.6 s
At 5 WPM
10.3 s
Collection
On the air

The beacon Rush heard flying into Toronto

A VHF omnidirectional range at the airport, a radio navigation beacon, broadcasts the YYZ identifier in Morse code. The band met the rhythm in the air. Talking to the Classic Albums series, they described flying home from Le Studio while they were making Moving Pictures, in a small plane flown by Alex Lifeson's flight instructor, with the airport's identifier tuned in on the way. Neil Peart, who thought of using the code, recalled: "The rhythm stuck in my head."

Geddy Lee has said the piece is about coming home, about "our town".

Counting Y-Y-Z in the intro

The introduction spells Y-Y-Z over and over, in different musical arrangements, and Peart played the Morse rhythm on crotales. Each Y runs long, short, long, long, and Z runs long, long, short, short, so the figure ends on its only pair of dots side by side.

The piece was nominated for the 1982 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance and lost to The Police's "Behind My Camel".

Why Toronto's code is YYZ

YYZ is the IATA code of Toronto Pearson International Airport, Canada's largest and busiest; its ICAO code is CYYZ. The YZ part was the code for the station at Malton, Ontario, where the airport stands. Toronto's own telegraph station was TZ, which is why the city's smaller Billy Bishop airport is YTZ.

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Frequently asked questions

YYZ is the IATA code for Toronto Pearson International Airport. It does not abbreviate the airport's name: YZ was the code for the station at Malton, Ontario, where the airport is. Rush took the title, and the rhythm of -.-- -.-- --.., from the airport's Morse identifier.

It is on Moving Pictures, released by Rush in 1981. The instrumental was nominated for a Grammy in 1982 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, losing to The Police. The live album Exit... Stage Left and the concert video A Show of Hands both include it with a Neil Peart drum solo.

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