All Unfound Maine Caches in Multiple PQs

This subject of a method of getting PQs of all your unfound Maine caches without overlapping or getting duplicates comes up now and then so I thought I'd make it an article so it will be easy for all to utilize.

1. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/, log in if needed.

2. From the menu on the right side of the page, under the Premium Features heading, click the Build Pocket Queries link.

3. Select the Create a new Query link at the top of the page.

4. Give your Query a unique name. I name mine Unfound Maine Caches followed by a number, 1 for the first one.

5. Important! Make sure all days of the week are not selected!

6. Choose how you want the PQ downloaded. Your choice, but I would not choose option 3. You'll want this PQ again.

7. Change the number of caches to 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs].



8. Leave Any Type selected unless there are cache types you do not want to include.

9. Leave Any Container selected unless there are any containers you do not want to include.

10. On the next section, select the I haven't found and the I don't own options. If you are ignoring caches and would like to exclude them, you may do so here. Also, if you don't want to get disabled caches in your PQ, select the Is Active option.



11. Leave the Terrain and Difficulty sections unchecked unless you want to filter for either.

12. On the Within section, select the State button and scroll down to Maine and select that only.



13. Leave the From Origin set to None Selected.



14. This is the section we will be editing by trial and error so that we can produce just under 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs] caches. I always use the first day of a month as my starting date, and the last day of a month as my ending date. For our first query, we will use a starting date of January 1st, 2000, and an ending date of January 31st, 2005. We want to select a period of time here that does not exceed 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs] caches, but is close. Be careful selecting the ending day of a month - if, for instance, you select Sept. 31st, there will be an error since September only has 30 days.



15. Attributes to include/exclude can be left as is, unless you do not want to do certain caches.

16. The last few sections are personal preference, select as desired. If you are using the PQs for any data (GSAK, PDA, etc.) you must select GPS eXchange Format (*.GPX) format.

17. Click the Submit Information button.

18. At the top of the next page, it will tell you the total number of records the PQ will produce. With any luck, it is close to 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs], but not over.



If it is not close to 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs] or over 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs], you will need to edit the dates and resubmit the PQ. If it wasn't close enough, edit the ending date to a later date, submit, and check the total again. If it was over 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs], edit the ending date to an earlier date, submit, and check the total again. Repeat this process until you are close to 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs] but not over.

19. That's it for the first PQ! You may select the dates you would like the PQ to run at this point if you would like to, though it is probably best to wait until you have created all the PQs. Also, it may help to jot down the dates you used for the query for reference in case you edit something wrong on the next.

20. Now it gets a bit easier. return to the Pocket Query list, http://www.geocaching.com/pocket/.

21. Click the Copy icon next to your newly created PQ, and click OK to confirm. It looks like a lightning bolt. This will create a new PQ named Copy of plus the name of the PQ you copied, in my case the name is Copy of Unfound Maine caches 1.



22. Click on your new PQ to edit it.

23. Edit the name accordingly. In my case, it is renamed to Unfound Maine caches 2.

24. Leave the rest of the PQ the way it is except for the dates. Edit the starting date so it is the day after the previous PQ's ending date.

25. Edit the ending date once again as you did in step 14 until you get just under 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs] caches. Submit, preview, edit, submit, preview until you get it just right. Once you get it, you may select the dates you would like the PQ to run if you would like to.

26. Repeat this process until you can reach the current date without the PQ exceeding 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs] caches. For this PQ I like to select the latest date the PQ generator will support (Dec 31st, 2010) so that the PQ will work until it exceeds 500 [Or 1000 for PQ1K PQs] caches. At that point you'll have to create another PQ.

27. Select the days of the week you would like each query to run if you have not done so already. Remember, Geocaching.com only allows 5 PQs per day, so if you have over 5 PQs to run you will have to split them up over two or more days. If you select the current day for any PQs to run, you should receive them very soon, but it may take ten or fifteen minutes.

This process is very efficient, but should be edited with time since as you find more caches and other caches get archived you can stretch the time period for the PQ out a little further.