Hi Chris and Roger,

I think I am qualified to judge a contest on a 4.0 magnitude quake within the State of CA. They don't happen all that often and getting close shouldn't be that difficult to judge either.

I use a little program in the computer that allows one to enter the latitude and longitude in one place and then you enter location #2 and it tells one how far away they are from place to place, as the crow flys. Its provides the most direct distance between two places. I use it regularly to count the miles for my ear tones.

So when we get a 4.0 or greater, I can measure off the distance quite easily from the closest city to the epicenter of the quake, using the USGS database and bingo, the winner shall be known in a matter of minutes. (provided the net is not down or the site.)

But as for Chris' contest, well, that's a whole different thing. I have no idea how he's judging it. I got lost somewhere along the way and so he has to ferret that one out. LOL

Petra