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Do you use your 5 PQ's a day?


Team_Robertson

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I'm working on some pocket queries to get the most bang for my buck. I'm wondering how you more experienced cachers do it.

 

So far I have a 75 Kilometer radius and only for Ontario (I live right beside Quebec).

I have 4 queries running

 

(mon, weds, Fri)one for Multi caches with a difficulty of 1.5 or less

(Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun)Multi 2.0 or greater

 

(mon, weds, Fri)traditional 1.5 or less

(Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun)traditional 2 or greater

 

then I have a "other" with gets all the earth, letterbox etc caches. that runs Mon and Fri

 

so is this overkill? and how should I best manage my queries?

 

What I want is a query or 5 to give me the most coverage so that when I'm driving around, I can pick and choose one, if I happen to drive by.

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I'm working on some pocket queries to get the most bang for my buck. I'm wondering how you more experienced cachers do it.

 

So far I have a 75 Kilometer radius and only for Ontario (I live right beside Quebec).

I have 4 queries running

 

(mon, weds, Fri)one for Multi caches with a difficulty of 1.5 or less

(Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun)Multi 2.0 or greater

 

(mon, weds, Fri)traditional 1.5 or less

(Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun)traditional 2 or greater

 

then I have a "other" with gets all the earth, letterbox etc caches. that runs Mon and Fri

 

so is this overkill? and how should I best manage my queries?

 

What I want is a query or 5 to give me the most coverage so that when I'm driving around, I can pick and choose one, if I happen to drive by.

 

I like to run my queries right before I go caching so I get the latest updates. It only takes a few minutes. I typically create a query and view it for coverage on the map before submitting it. That way I can tweak it a bit to shift it to the area I am actually going to cover. There are over 6000 caches within 40 miles of my house so I don't bother to try to load them all.

 

If you wanted to load all the caches in your area out to a certain radius, I would do it by using date ranges. You set the date range to get the 500 oldest caches and then adjust the date range upward for each PQ getting 500 with each until you get to the current date range.

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I create a route and run a PQ or just grab a PQ for the city/area I am in - all just before heading out the door. It is a rare moment that I cannot get my PQ in my email inside of 5 minutes. Load it on the Oregon and I am off. Can even rethink what I pulled up the first time several times per day - just find an Internet hot-spot (when/if I can).

 

Easy enough.

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With all respect and at the high risk of becoming the fly in the ointment...or worse...which is not my intent...you have these running all the time?? Every day?? Is there really that much change in the total population of caches in the Quebec area that a weekly update by type and difficulty is needed? A monthly update wouldn't do? Wow. The reason I bring this up is, from the PQ page:

 

"Due to the complexity of Pocket Queries, a dedicated machine processes them in batches throughout the day.

....

Or even better, create new queries only when you need them."

 

The last sentance is the point I'm moving to. Each PQ requires CPU time to process and deliver. I'm not sure how much value is in a weekly update. Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, just making an observation that what you're most likely getting is the same datasets each week, with some updated logs and a minimal amount of new caches. Just seems like a lot of work managing a lot of PQs for little new info.

 

As posted before, you can have them set up in advance, just not running all the time, and run which ever one you need or want, get it back in 5 min, process it and be out the door. But, to each their own.

 

Cheers!

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What I want is a query or 5 to give me the most coverage so that when I'm driving around, I can pick and choose one, if I happen to drive by.

 

I take it that to cover a wide area you need to limit caches included in the PQ. Wider than what a non-filtered PQ can provide.

 

If you wanted to trim some of the excess I would say to run a PQ that only included high difficulty caches once every couple of weeks, or more. They tend to maintain their status. How likely are you to go for one while you happen to drive by?

Edited by BlueDeuce
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Every user will answer this question slightly differently, because we all cache differently.

 

I use a good portion of my five daily queries to collect all the unfound caches in a wide circle around my home area. I split them up by "date placed," which is the least variable and most configurable option for getting maximum results out of your queries. Pick a date range that returns 495 caches (leaving some wiggle room in case some disabled caches get re-enabled, or if a "date hidden" gets changed). Start the next query on the day after the previous one maxed out. Add new queries as the old ones fill up. Update the old ones periodically to "fill" them to nearly 500 caches again, as caches in a date range are archived or are found by your account.

 

Since I do most of my caching on the weekends, I run the "oldest" caches early in the week (these caches don't change much, and aren't logged as often) and the newer ones at the end of the week so I have fresh data and the last ones published before I leave for my caching trip.

 

I make sure to save room on some of the days for queries that I only run occasionally (three for my hometown in the next state, for example). And I always save a slot on Tuesday for my "All Finds" query.

 

Using this system, the oldest data I have is one week old at any point in time. I can't recall ever getting "burned" by hunting for a cache that came in Tuesday's pocket query, but was archived on Thursday. So, I don't see the need for updating my queries several times per week. I would only do that if the average cache was getting more than five logs per week. As it stands, around a third to a half of each query's caches show no change from the prior week's data.

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I have a total of 14 PQs that I run weekly, covering areas that I am likely to get to. Five run on Monday, five on Tuesday, and four on Wednesday. Early in the week works well for me. Most caching seems to be done on the weekends, so my PQs should be pretty fresh. This leaves lots of room Thursday and Friday, also the weekends if I'm headed someplace special off my usual route. Sunday night is when I run "My Finds" if it's needed, most of MY caching being done on the weekend and recorded on Sunday night.

 

hairball

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Yeah, I basically do the same thing as TrailGators...run a PQ just before heading out the door. At least this way I know I have the latest info...also, I really don't want to even try to keep some sort of database going...

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About the only PQ I have set is the 500 nearest on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in case I am going to do some traveling and grab one or two while on the road (even then, I don't download them right away...most of them are just deleted with the rest of my email since I really haven't had the chance to do much caching lately)...otherwise, I just don't worry about it and runa PQ when I need it...

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I think every one uses the PQ differently. I have 2 PQ that are run multiple times a week. One for the nearest 500 un-found caches. The other one is for the AGT caches.

 

When I go out for a cache run I then get a PQ a couple of times in the week before I go.

 

I do have a few PQ made up that I have on standby. For areas I go to frequently.

 

I also have a PQ for my caches I have put out.

 

I hope this helps

 

kf4oox - Paul

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Every user will answer this question slightly differently, because we all cache differently.

 

I use a good portion of my five daily queries to collect all the unfound caches in a wide circle around my home area. I split them up by "date placed," ...

 

Since I do most of my caching on the weekends, I run the "oldest" caches early in the week (these caches don't change much, and aren't logged as often) and the newer ones at the end of the week so I have fresh data and the last ones published before I leave for my caching trip.

 

I make sure to save room on some of the days for queries that I only run occasionally ...

 

Using this system, the oldest data I have is one week old at any point in time. I can't recall ever getting "burned" by hunting for a cache that came in Tuesday's pocket query, but was archived on Thursday. So, I don't see the need for updating my queries several times per week. I would only do that if the average cache was getting more than five logs per week. As it stands, around a third to a half of each query's caches show no change from the prior week's data.

 

The Leprechauns pretty much sum up how we do it as well. Eight queries covers a 30 mile radius from home, which is where we do most of our caching.

 

Two per day. Oldest is run on Monday, newest on Thursday. That leaves room for any out-of-area queries on any day, and all of the Friday, Saturday and Sunday queries for last minute plans.

 

Everything goes into GSAK and the PDA, and I use GSAKs filters to select what specific area gets loaded into the GPS's.

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For CT, where I live, 4 PQs gets all the caches in the state, which I'll run every couple weeks. If new caches come out in between, I'll download the GPX for those manually. Then, I have them "on hand" and can quickly send caches in whatever area I'm going to go to the GPS. Like this Saturday, we're heading west, so I'll send ones west of where I live and the Sunday we're heading north, so I'll send those.

 

If we're going to another state, I'll pick a distance (say 35 miles) out from where we're going to be. If more than 500 are returned in the PQ, I'll reduce the number of caches in the PQ by adjusting the end date until it gets under 500. Then, I'll create a second PQ using dates and keep repeating that until there are no more caches in that 35 mile radius. In most of the states around here 2 or 3 PQs is needed to get those caches.

 

Markwell has some great info here on setting up PQs.

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I do my PQ's based on Date Placed. It takes 9 queries to get all the unfound caches within 140 km of Markham, even though I have already found over 2000 caches in the area.

 

The first 8 PQ's cover up until the end of May 2008. There are so many new caches in the GTA that PQ9 covers June through present day. It currently extends well beyond the 140 km circle but is shrinking every day. Most days there are 8 to 10 new caches in that circle.

 

I run PQ9 daily. The others I run every other day. PQ1-4 on even days. PQ 5-8 on odd days.

 

On a regular basis, I rebuild my GSAK database and convert the entire list into Garmin POI's. So my GPS has the closest 4000 caches loaded in. That way I am ready to go on a moment's notice.

Edited by Tequila
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As many of the previous responders, I used "Date placed" and the state. I have already download NJ, PA, NJ, and MA. Now, all that I do is run updates on those using a date range that starts with the ending date of the last update and ends with the most current date that I can use. I use GSAK to manage all of this and more recently, I've used a CountyExport macro that I found so I can just select the counties that I want to cover when I go out. I guess that everybody has their own tools. I keep as much data in my PDA as I can so that if I'm out and I find one that's not in my GPS, I can always manually enter it. I also keep as many "waypoints" in my car GPS as possible for the same reason. Most of the time this helps when I'm out in an area that I've not been to before and aids in getting some extra caches that weren't "planned" for.

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I only have two pocket queries which I actually run and get the GPX file from on any sort of regular basis. One covers my closest unfound 500 caches to home, including all types except Mystery/Unknowns. The covers a radius of around 50km. A second query finds my closest unfound Mystery/Puzzles caches which naturally extends much further.

 

(The only reason I run them as two distinct queries is because I keep them in two different GSAK databases.)

 

I don't bother scheduling them, I just run them when I know I expect to be caching in the next few days. I like to try and do my part to reduce the load on the server and I find that often running them every couple of weeks seems to be enough.

 

If I am going to travel out of my normal area I'll set up a query for the destination or for along the route as needed and then run them once before leaving and that covers me.

 

So, under normal circumstances, I don't ever come close to using my 5 PQs a day.

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Not every day that's for sure. I will typically use two to three PQ's for a cache run but that's only if I'm not certain as to where I'll be caching. After all, my Garmin 60CSx can only hold 1000. I really would like to see the minimum number of results in a single PQ raised to 750 or 1000 though.

 

The only time I've done more than three or four PQ's in preparation for a trip. I recently ran them as routes for a 2700 mile road trip and I still had more than I could possibly find.

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I run mine pretty much like what Lep said. I used the "date placed" method to make sure I don't miss anything, and I only update the oldest caches once a week. Newer caches I might update two times a week, and the brand newest caches 3 times, usually on a Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday so I'm ready for the weekend and get whatever was published over the weekend.

 

My PQ circle is all within 50 miles of home. If I'm going farther than that I'll run a special PQ for wherever I'm going, as well as one for along the route.

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I might run 5 in a month if I'm real busy caching.

 

I mostly only go for a couple caches at a time, and look at them online first, so if they are still active, and haven't been moved or lost, I can use the coords from the last time I ran the query, which may be a week ago.

 

seems to take forever on some days to actally get the query, so I just use an old one.

 

I suppose I could just set it to run every day, so it's ready whenever I need it, whether I do or not.

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