Michael,

We count the loudest part of the ear tone and not the "trailing sound." And we count like one would do for lightning..1001, 1002 and so forth. Ear tones don't care what you are doing when they happen..LOL I've had them everywhere and even blasting music on the car CD does nothing to keep you from hearing them if they are for large earthquakes. We are not positive what the trailing sound is exactly, but it could denote the length of the fault.

We started working with a scale for volume because that denotes magnitude. We use a scale from 1-5 and do break that down into fractions. One should be just audible and 5 should be where you think if you heard anything louder you'd lose your hearing. It's about the only way to communicate how loud a sound might be. But we have discovered if the ear tone is coming from a place where there is a large mountain range between you and the future quake, the mountain range will muffle the sound. That's why it is helpful to work with other people in other area's.

The easiest way to understand ear tones is to get a California road map and mark off circles at 37.5 miles out from you. Once you can see where the lines go you will become abundantly aware of what places have earthquakes and which one's don't. So if one had to select a location at circle 5 away from you, you could narrow it down fairly well. It's a great visual.

And lastly, if your hearing gets a blocked sensation just before the tone starts that means the quake will occur in or near the ocean.

It's very simple for the most part,

Petra