>It was explained to me that these radio signals we're receiving are being
>interpreted as tones. 
They are tones, with a reasonable objectivity.

>So when we say that this tone represents a number, does that mean that the same
>tone repeated a certain number of times?

It's all a cycle of hypothesize, predict, test.

Go back and look at the first message -- that's where numbers and arithmetic
were introduced. First, we guess the tone labelled "G" is a delimiter; every 
"sentence" begins and ends with a G. So we see one B, two B's, three B's, etc.
So we guess that they're demonstrating counting, and B is sort of a unit or tally
marker. 
Then we see a funny structure containing B, BB, and B, separated by H. So we guess
that H is something about addition. This is just a guess, of course, but the next
"sentences" fit the guess, so it's a good one (and note that we're also getting 
supporting evidence for the "G sentence G" pattern.) 
Lather, rinse, repeat for the rest of the message. They explain subtraction
(not quite the way we do it), multiplication, and division. Then equality. At that
point, when they say (in their syntax) "B=B; C=BB; D=BBB; E=BBBB..." we can figure 
out that those tones represent the numbers one, two, three, four....

Is that what you wanted to know?

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