Martin:

Sorry, I have to disagree.

A forcast for PNG is not specific. PNG is a very large area, and it's boundries can be interpreted by many different poeple many different ways. It may be specific in your eyes, but not in all eyes, and certainly not in my eyes. I am the layman you speak of.

Bottom line is you must be more clear in order to gain credibility. Credibility gets you funding. One gets you the other. Without credibility, you can kiss funding goodbye.

No, of course I don't expect your to have a fault map with you at all times, but what about a few times? How about 25% percent of the time?

Being specific doesn't have to mean Lon/Lat. You could indicate "On the San Andreas 10 miles NW of Parkfield, CA" for example. That would be much better than "Central California".

You said:
"A center point and radius from lat long would include a lot more wasted forecast area sq miles because fualts run in thin lines and it's like putting a quarter on a string-wasted area of coverage for that one inch of string."

What makes a forcast of "a 6+ in PNG next 10 days" any different? Seems like there would be a lot of wasted sq miles in your forcast anyways, so I'm really confused about your statement. I agree that quakes occur mostly on known faults, but an analysis with a catalog would include the same "wasted sq miles" as a forcast, so it becomes a non-issue. You statement baffles me, please explain it further. Please tell me how a "6+ in PNG" is any different from a circular area of x miles from a Lon/Lat .......

I sympathize with your time/financial situation, but I have do have a solution.

I challenge you to do the following to prove your credibility:

For forcasts within California, use the format I have proposed, IE Lon/Lat, and a circular distance, or anough Lon/Lat pairs to form a square, rectangle, or whatever shape you want. Lon.Lat can be found at:

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/index.html

For example, Parkfield CA is at 36N -120.5E. It took me about 10 seconds to determine that and it was free, and I didn't have to have a fault map in front of me.

If this is still to time consuming for you, give me "within 50 miles of 10 miles NE of Parkfield" and and time window and I'll figure out the rest.

Martin, I really want to buy into what your selling, but your gunna have to prove it to me first.