Updating caches with GSAK

[+winative]

Just wondering how people stay on top of all the caches they collect. We travel all over our state, so should I just get all the caches for the entire state? What's the easiest way to do that? I'm a premium member, and have just started using GSAK. Then how do you update, check for new, etc? Do you run the PQ's again? It looks like there is an option to get PQ's everyday. Do people do that?? Thanks!

[+Team_LPD]

I usually just concentrate on the area where I live, northeastern PA. If I'm going to a different part of the state, or a totally different state I'll run a PQ for the areas where I'll be.

 

Getting all the caches for your entire state might not be the way to go, your could end up with a million (maybe not) caches.

[+Chuy!]

I see most of your finds are in Wisconsin; so, I'm assuming that's the state you're talking about. Wisconsin currently has 6395 caches. That's too many to manage pocket queries for since you're only allowed five PQs a day at 500 waypoints each.

 

Since you travel alot, User Routes may be the best place to start. I haven't used it yet, but I got a short tutorial from a fellow cacher and it seems pretty nifty. Essentially, you create a route of your itineary, then upload it into the website and it will give you caches along your route. GSAK does this too, but you have to have the PQs ahead of time and then you have to set up your route using Arc Lines and such. This works best in a County or two, not across a whole state where you would need lots of PQs. You can still use GSAK to manage the route-generated PQs.

[+Miragee]

I have several PQs in my list that are centered around different locations in this very large, cache-rich county. I don't run all the PQs every week, but I will run the one or two for the direction I am heading the day before I plan to head that way.

 

I open the zipped file in GSAK and it updates any cache that has had a log since the last PQ. I Export the data to the correct format for Cachemate on my Palm when I send the waypoints to my GSPr.

 

When I was traveling, I took my laptop with me and would run a new PQ for the area I was in, adding that to GSAK in a database for the State I was traveling through at that time. I had several thousand caches in GSAK at that time, and that many in Cachemate in different databases to make searching easier.

[+The Leprechauns]

I like taking off on a moment's notice with no advance planning on where I'll be geocaching. That's the beauty of going paperless. Gone are the late nights spent plotting a route and printing out cache pages and maps.

 

I've set up Pocket Queries for all caches within 150 miles of my house that are active and which I have not found. They are split up by the placement date of the caches, which I recommend over the inefficient method of overlapping circles. I receive the query files 3 or 4 per day throughout the week, so that each query is updated with fresh data weekly. Since I mostly cache on weekends, I run the queries for the newest caches on Friday. The first file, caches from 2000-2003, runs on Monday.

 

I load the cache files into GSAK on my laptop, and then just take the laptop with me in the cachemobile. That way I can also use the big screen for mapping and autorouting. The Garmin nRoute software shows my position in real time, relative to the cache I'm trying to get to, and a pleasant voice tells me when to turn.

 

When you update GSAK by importing the new files, the most recent logs are added in with the existing logs on that cache. So, instead of only having the five most recent logs handy, you'll have them for as far back as your database goes. To avoid hunting for caches that are disabled, archived or already found, I simply filter out all caches with a "Last GPX" date that's more than a week old, since those caches won't be delivered in the current query for active unfound caches. Then I squirt the active, unfound caches onto my GPS and into the mapping software.

 

I manage about 7800 unfound caches within this radius currently, and I still have plenty of queries left over when I take trips outside my home area. For my recent vacation in the Northwest, I used radius queries around three cities where I'd be staying, and connected them with caches along a route queries for the route I'd be driving.

[+winative]

Thank you all. You've given me helpful information!

[+blindleader]

I beg to differ with Chuy! I easily keep the 10,000 active caches in my state updated every week with 21 PQs with no overlap. It's nice to have logs going back two years. More than once this has come in handy when an old log contained corrected coordinates that were never adopted by the cache owner.

 

The trick is in updating archived caches, which do not appear in PQs. I use filters matching each day's PQs and sort by Last GPX date. Those not updated get downloaded by hand (easier and quicker than it sounds) and added into the database.

 

When you're going to a specific area, run a radius PQ for that area so that GSAK has the freshest updates. Be sure to weed out the archived ones.

[+Chuy!]

I beg to differ with Chuy! I easily keep the 10,000 active caches in my state updated every week with 21 PQs with no overlap. It's nice to have logs going back two years. More than once this has come in handy when an old log contained corrected coordinates that were never adopted by the cache owner.

 

The trick is in updating archived caches, which do not appear in PQs. I use filters matching each day's PQs and sort by Last GPX date. Those not updated get downloaded by hand (easier and quicker than it sounds) and added into the database.

 

When you're going to a specific area, run a radius PQ for that area so that GSAK has the freshest updates. Be sure to weed out the archived ones.

He asked for the easiest way to plan his route.

 

When I first started using GSAK, learning to use the filters, macros, arc-lines, etc... was all quite daunting. It was information overload for me. Now, I consider myself an average GSAK user, but I wouldn't throw all this at once. You gotta ease into it.