I am impatient so can you help me?

[halo826]

I just upgraded to premium membership today and I am very very interested in pocket queries and all the benefit they bring to the hobby. However, I am pretty impatient and have been reading and looking around and finally found the create pocket query spot and went through and clicked and selected all the little boxes only to come up with 0 caches found, twice. I am out of patience with it and would like somebody to put it in a neat little box for me. What the heck are pocket queries and how do they work?

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Your problem is that you "clicked and selected all the little boxes".

 

Some parameters cancel one another, like I Have Found and I haven't Found -- results = Zero; Caches I Own and Caches I Don't Own, produce like results.

 

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Leave the day-of-the-week to run the query unchecked. Submit it and it will provide you with a link (near the top of the page) to preview the results. This does not count against your daily allotment as the PQ had never ran.

 

If you are happy with those results, return to the page and check that unchecked day-of-the-week. re-Submit.

 

Of course, if you aren't happy with those results, adjust the parameters you set and repeat.

[+K13]

Lake Superior is correct.

 

For a more detailed step-by-step guide try this:

 

You have already found the page to create a PQ, so go there.

 

Let's do this line-by-line or box-by-box so, In the first line: Name your query "Test"

 

In the next box, select the third buttton to "Run this query once then delete it"

 

Next enter 250 in the box for number of "Caches Total"

 

Next: check the box next to "Traditional Cache"

 

Next check "Any Container"

 

Next (and this one can be tricky) select "I haven't Found" and Found in the last 7 days" ( this selection can be tricky, because if you choose options that cancel each other, you will get 0 results )

 

Next check "Difficulty is" and choose "greater than or equal to" "1.5"

 

Next check "Terrain is" and choose "greater than or equal to" "1.5"

 

Next is the "From Origin" box. Choose a center point for your search area. If you have entered your "Home Location" use that choice. Otherwise try your home Postal (zip) code and enter it in the space.

 

Next is "Within a Radius of (enter your distance here) & choose miles (or KM)

 

Next is "Placed During" - go with "None Selected"

 

Skip the Attributes boxes for now, but realize that if you are too selective, you may not get many returns from your query - more is not always better here. And also realize that if you include and exclude the same thing, you will get no results.

 

Choose "GPS Exchange Format (*.gpx)" to get all the page info for your paperless GPS then click "Submit Information"

 

After you click submit, you should see in Green letters at the top of the page something like"Thanks! Your pocket query has been saved and currently results in 250 caches. You can preview the search on the nearest cache page."

 

Click that link and you can see the results of your query, which will be sent to your e-mail or you can download from that page.

[+TomToad]

good PQ tutorial here. ->

http://markwell.us/pq.htm

[halo826]

Oh hallelujah! Thank you so much for this! I will be following these instructions to see what I can do. I should have been more specific. I did not have all the boxes clicked, I went through and checked some and unchecked others trying to be conscientious, but I just didn't get anything. I am going to follow the instructions above. Thank you all so much for the help!

[+kunarion]

If you're as impatient as I am and just want to see a Pocket Query work, you can Create a new Query, then checkmark the day of the week (today), and in the From Origin box, select My Home Location. Click Submit Information button and wait for the email notice. You'll get a Pocket Query of up to 500 caches that can be loaded into your GPSr.

 

Then you'll probably want to tweak the settings, so follow the other links in this thread for info on how to fine-tune it. If you don't select a day of the week, you can test a bunch of filters and settings til you see a list you like.

Edited August 15, 2013 by kunarion

[+Chief301]

I find the simplest way to create a Pocket Query is to just search from the map. Zoom in on the area you're interested in and sort of frame that area within the map view. When you have the whole area of interest contained within the frame, go to the control panel to the left of the map and select "Save as Pocket Query". A query will be generated of all the caches showing on the map.

 

I prefer not to search by zip code, or address, or any of the other normal "Search" options. I find it easier to visualize the area I want on the map and just grab that. YMMV

 

Then, as Gitchee pointed out, don't check any boxes for now. Checking boxes is only good for filtering out caches by certain criteria, and if you accidentally select conflicting boxes you'll filter out ALL the caches, as you have discovered. Save that for later after you've got a feel for how the PQ works.