PQ Splitter Problem?

I'm not sure where to place this topic, so I place it here.

I see the PQ Splitter as an option to obtain coverage in an area. Not having tried it before, I decided to use it in San Diego and a bit of the surrounding counties to a radius of 100 miles. The PQ Splitter gave the following results:

Center Radius: N 32 09.215 W 117 23.858
Filters: Region California, 100 miles, Hide: Found and Owned
Splitted on 1000

# Start date End date Days Caches
1 September/10/2000 September/20/2006 2202 989
2 September/21/2006 May/31/2008 619 983
3 June/01/2008 July/24/2009 419 987
4 July/25/2009 July/27/2010 368 989
5 July/28/2010 May/10/2011 287 983
6 May/11/2011 April/01/2012 327 983
7 April/02/2012 March/01/2013 334 988
8 March/02/2013 November/09/2013 253 979
9 November/10/2013 July/17/2014 250 984
10 July/18/2014 March/25/2016 617 990
11 March/26/2016 July/29/2017 491 987
12 July/30/2017 September/03/2018 401 987
13 September/04/2018 November/06/2019 429 969
14 November/07/2019 September/26/2020 325 990
15 September/27/2020 September/01/2021 340 990
16 September/02/2021 165
16 GPX files, 14,943 geocaches

Here are the results I got, which matched the above for the first 3 PQs, then diverged significantly.

Pocket Queries Days Caches
SD County - 20000910 to 20060920 2202 982
SD County - 20060921 to 20080531 619 974
SD County - 20080601 to 20090723 419 975
SD County - 20090724 to 20100725 366 984
SD County - 20100726 to 20101115 113 976
SD County - 20101116 to 20110404 140 977
SD County - 20110405 to 20110809 112 988
SD County - 20110810 to 20111231 144 991
SD County - 20120101 to 20120327 88 970
SD County - 20120328 to 20120710 105 964
SD County - 20120711 to 20121018 100 942
SD County - 20121019 to 20130204 109 986
SD County - 20130205 to 20130523 107 986
SD County 60 - 20130524 to 20131126 187 990 --- I dropped the radius from 100 miles to 60 at this point
SD County 60 - 20131127 to 20140620 137 982
SD County 60 - 20140621 to 20150722 398 979
SD County 60 - 20150723 to 20160516 324 986
SD County 60 - 20160517 to 20170629 410 982
SD County 60 - 20170630 to 20180504 309 983
SD County 60 - 20180505 to 20190331 332 989
SD County 60 - 20190401 to 20200208 315 983
SD County 60 - 20200209 to 20200831 256 990
SD County 60 - 20200901 to 20210417 233 988
SD County 60 - 20210418 to 20211206 86 754

Total 23301

Common reasons for mismatching results with the PQ splitter is not having the exact same settings.

Start by double checking that you have California set for the PQs you run, I just checked the first one from the beginning to 2006-09-20 and there is at least six caches that are in Mexico just by looking at the map and a couple of border caches, so that one seems to match that problem.

I'm also thinking you might have dropped the radius or something for some of these PQs. I did a search on map compare for a random date range in the middle, 20110405 to 20110809 and the result is 378 caches that you haven't found (414 in total) if we're including the one cache in Mexico. Yet your list says 988 caches, so something is wrong with either your search or mine. Considering you had the date last in the first PQ I assumed this is April 5, 2011 to August 9, 2011 but then again that's 126 days and your post says 112 days so that doesn't really add up.. On the other hand switching month and date turns it into 127 days, so your 112 might be the number of possible hidden dates I guess? :) Here's a link to the search, you could compare it to your PQ to see what caches doesn't match and try to find the error that way: Link to map compare search

I got 16,988 geocaches in the PQ splitter, considering I have 0 finds in the area it seems to match your PQ-splitter pretty well.

Oh wow! I’m chagrined. One simple mistake and I’ve been staring at these until I’m blue in the face. Amazing how we see what we want to see, but the computers see what really is. Thank you! You may close this case.

Yes. I checked all the PQs and they specify California, so there should not be any Mexico caches in them.

I did drop the radius as mentioned above, when I started getting so many caches inside just a few days.

Here is the PQ (I removed all formatting in order to share it here) that you mentioned: 20110405 to 20110809.

Note1: I manually calculated the number of dates in order to document this topic and probably screwed up here when I said 112 days.

Note2: I started using the European format for my PQ names so that they would sort properly on the Geocaching webpage and I could locate where I was in the process more efficiently.

Note3: It says 985 caches today between those dates instead of 988. I assume it's because I found some or some were archived in the intervening time.


Pocket Query
Thanks! Your pocket query has been modified and currently results in 985 caches. You can preview the search here.

Query Name:
SD County - 20110405 to 20110809

Days to Generate: (Server Time: Tuesday, 07 December 2021 10:47:29)
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Choose how often your query should run:

Uncheck the day of the week after the query runs
Run this query every week on the days checked
Run this query once then delete it
1000
Caches Total

Any Type

Any Container

Selected Containers:
Small Large Micro
Other (see description) Regular Unknown
Virtual
That (And)
I haven't found
I don't own
Is Enabled
And

Difficulty is
greater than or equal to
1

Terrain is
greater than or equal to
1

Within
Countries
States / Provinces
California

From Origin
By Coordinates
Degrees and minutes (MinDec)
N 33 ° 09.215'
W 117° 23.858 '
Within a Radius of
100 mi

Placed During
Between April/05/2011 And August/09/2011

I might have chosen the wrong word, what I ment when I said I suspect you "droped the radius" is that it seems your PQs are running without the radius (or some other data point is incorrect) since you're getting more caches than you're supposed to. English is not my first language so there is probably a better word for this. Sorry for the confusion. :)

I think I've spotted the error tho. In your original post you said you used N 32 09.215 W 117 23.858 for your radius, in the PQ-settings you added now you have N 33 ° 09.215' W 117° 23.858'. That's N33 instead of N32, and that search gives 988 caches that you haven't found. So that's your problem, different coordinates used in the PQ splitter vs the PQ tool.

Thank you for all your help! You may close this case.