How do you manage your pocket queries?

[+cr4zybilly]

I've been using my new PN-30 for about a week now. I've got to say, going paperless is AWESOME.

 

One of the first things I did, though, was to dump out a PQ will all the caches around my home location. So now, I've got a million billion caches in there.

 

when I want to find just one, like if I think, 'Oh, I'd like to go to Such-and-Such a cache as Whats-It-Called Park', I've got to sort through all the caches I've got in there to find Such-and-Such.

 

Seems like it might make more sense to keep fewer caches in the GPSr at a time, and segment them somehow, so they're easier to sort through.

 

Is anybody doing anything like that? or do you just fill up your unit with all the caches you might ever think of looking for, close to where you're going to be?

[NordicMan]

Well, my Garmin Vista Cx will always sort the caches in order of distance to my current location, so it won't clutter the screen with caches that are 20-50-100 miles away and of no current interest to me. Doesn't the PN-30 handle caches in a similar way?

 

The beauty of having "all" the nearby geocaches all in the device is you can then do ad-hoc geocaching. Find one then see what else is in the neighborhood, so to speak

[+Team CowboyPapa]

Well, my Garmin Vista Cx will always sort the caches in order of distance to my current location, so it won't clutter the screen with caches that are 20-50-100 miles away and of no current interest to me. Doesn't the PN-30 handle caches in a similar way?

 

Yes, one has the option of:

Listing alphabetically, or

Listing in the order of distance from the screen, or map, center.

[+cr4zybilly]

I can do either of those. The problem comes when I want to do something that neither--something specific a little ways away that I may or may not remember the name of.

 

In case, I'm mostly just curious how everybody's using their PQs--with mass exporting or with some sense of segmentation?

[NordicMan]

Speaking again from my Garmin Vista Cx experience,, it will by default show all waypoints around me sorted in order of distance. Or, I can "change my reference point" to somewhere else and it'll then show all waypoints around THAT location sorted in order of distance.

 

Sorry if that doesn't help your Delorme user question lol, but is that kinda what you're referring to?

[+cr4zybilly]

I'm curious how you set your PQs up on the site--just to grab everything? or do you chop them up so you have a bunch of individual PQs for each sliver of whatever it is you're looking for?

Edited April 9, 2010 by cr4zybilly

[+ecanderson]

I'm curious how you set your PQs up on the site--just to grab everything? or do you chop them up so you have a bunch of individual PQs for each sliver of whatever it is you're looking for?

 

Since there's a limit on how many can be run per day, I always break things up geographically into 4 or 5 big chunks, trying to get minimal overlap (requires moving centers around from time to time). Both of my Garmin units will let me browse around on the map and identify caches in a particular location. So if I were in the peculiar situation you mentioned, I would just browse to the park in question, put the pointer on the cache(s) there (eTrex) or poke them with my finger (Dakota), and find out which ones they are.

[+beaner1is50]

I am new and am wondering what is a pocket query?

[+Neumania]

I'm curious how you set your PQs up on the site--just to grab everything? or do you chop them up so you have a bunch of individual PQs for each sliver of whatever it is you're looking for?

 

Since there's a limit on how many can be run per day, I always break things up geographically into 4 or 5 big chunks, trying to get minimal overlap (requires moving centers around from time to time). Both of my Garmin units will let me browse around on the map and identify caches in a particular location. So if I were in the peculiar situation you mentioned, I would just browse to the park in question, put the pointer on the cache(s) there (eTrex) or poke them with my finger (Dakota), and find out which ones they are.

 

Another way to segment PQs into 500-cache chunks without having to move centers is to segment by time. I have 5 PQs, all the same center point, all 40 km radius, but each of them pulling a different date range. I came up with the ranges by varying them until I got close to 500, knowing that over time this number will just go down as old caches die off. Last week, for the first time, I had to go in and readjust as my "XXX-Present" PQ hit the 500 cache limit.

 

A lot easier than figuring out centers on a map and no overlap.

[+ecanderson]

I am new and am wondering what is a pocket query?

Whatsit? About the slickest part of your $30 membership. Good tutorial here:

 

http://www.markwell.us/pq.htm

[+GeoCraig]

I do PQs by geographically areas--areas large enough to load the 500 maximum caches. I overlap them a little bit so nothing falls between the cracks. All PQs have their own database in GSAK. I use an explorist 500 that allows separate folders for each database/PQ.

 

I also use Streets & Trips and download each PQ into the map in a different color. That helps me plan my searches.

[+Team CowboyPapa]

I'm curious how you set your PQs up on the site--just to grab everything? or do you chop them up so you have a bunch of individual PQs for each sliver of whatever it is you're looking for?

OK, now I see that for which you are most interested.

Yes, it is possible. I use Firmware 2.7 on my PN-40.

http://delormepn40.wikispaces.com/Firmware+Versions#toc8

With this I am able to compartmentalize my geocaches and non-geocache, or general, waypoints into several files, or folders, and store them on the SD card as opposed to the previous internal storage.

In so doing I use Topo USA 8.0 after I download and unzip the results of each PQ and then Export each PQ set as a GPX file to the PN-40's SD card.

Edited April 9, 2010 by Team CowboyPapa

[+Chrysalides]

A set of 10 PQs with the same starting coordinates and radius, with different ranges of placed dates, as suggested by Markwell in his article. Excludes my finds.

 

They're all imported into the same database in GSAK. From there I filter for "findable" geocaches (active, all types except puzzles, unless the puzzle has corrected coordinates) and export that to my Nuvi (as POI) and Oregon.

 

The Oregon cannot hold all the geocaches, so I have a different selection criteria within GSAK for those I'm most likely to go for.

[+Crazy3boys]

I'm curious how you set your PQs up on the site--just to grab everything? or do you chop them up so you have a bunch of individual PQs for each sliver of whatever it is you're looking for?

OK, now I see that for which you are most interested.

Yes, it is possible. I use Firmware 2.7 on my PN-40.

http://delormepn40.wikispaces.com/Firmware+Versions#toc8

With this I am able to compartmentalize my geocaches and non-geocache, or general, waypoints into several files, or folders, and store them on the SD card as opposed to the previous internal storage.

In so doing I use Topo USA 8.0 after I download and unzip the results of each PQ and then Export each PQ set as a GPX file to the PN-40's SD card.

 

So if I understand this correctly I can have several PQ's with different criteria for the same area saved to SD card (PN-40 the best) which I can bring up individually for certain times? For example:When I have my kids with me and don't have time to go into the woods to get one but have the itch to grab a few park and grabs. I then can pull up that PQ separately from the regular pq for some power caching without the kiddos?

 

If this is possible does it have to go through topo or gsak? Can I use the cachregister from Delorme?

 

Thanks, Crazy3boys (micro cachers not power cachers yet )

[+Trucker Lee]

 

I also use Streets & Trips and download each PQ into the map in a different color. That helps me plan my searches.

 

HUH? I get mine as pushpins without color options. Please, enlighten us to your technique. I see great use for this as I often get truck accessible and other caches mixed on one map.

[+Team CowboyPapa]

So if I understand this correctly I can have several PQ's with different criteria for the same area saved to SD card (PN-40 the best) which I can bring up individually for certain times? For example:When I have my kids with me and don't have time to go into the woods to get one but have the itch to grab a few park and grabs. I then can pull up that PQ separately from the regular pq for some power caching without the kiddos?

 

If this is possible does it have to go through topo or gsak? Can I use the cachregister from Delorme?

 

Thanks, Crazy3boys (micro cachers not power cachers yet )

Yes, this is all possible.

1. With FW 2.7 the results of several PQs may be saved to the PN-40s SD card as individual GPS files.

2. I import each PQ output into Topo 8 and then Export as GPX files to a folder on the SD card named waypoints.

3. I think that Cache Resgister may be use; I choose not to.

4. GSAK is used by some; however, I do not use it.

5. I rename the PQ output file in Topo 8 to eliminate their numeric character string.

6. For those PQs which also produce an associated file of child waypoints, I combine the results of both into one file prior to export to the PN's SD card.

 

Additionally, my SD card hosts several other waypoint files that are not geocaching related. As such they just contain typical waypoints that a non-cacher would implement.

[+TwoBears Family]

I have been using folders in my garmin oregon 450 and as I ran new queries, I would replace the old one, but it looks as if the information isnt changing. I ended up taking the gpx's out of the folder and then I did get new information. can you not set a folder system on a garmin for pocket queries?

Thanks!

Kathy