PocketQuery for entire state

March 21, 2008

I was hoping Groundspeak would consider publishing on a daily or weekly basis all the caches within a state. This will allow us to use GSAK or other app to tailor the results. I've been on the MnGCA forums and it seems that many folks run somewhere around 13-14 queries to get the entire state of MN. There are multiple users doing this. So, for one, this would reduce the impact on the Groundspeak hardware by being proactive and the query would only be run once vs once per user. I had posted a question to the MnGCA board, to see if they could publish the list of all caches in MN, but they were concerned about "publishing" their GSAK database due to the terms and conditions withing Groundspeak. This will also help those of us that love challenge caches. We have KingBoreas here in MN that has thousands of hides and many challenge hides. One of which is to find a cache starting with every letter of the alphabet or find a cache in all the county seats, etc. By having the full state on a period basis, it will help with that. It's very difficult, to get the entire state.

Thanks for your consideration.

speedysk1

7.2k · March 21, 2008

Publishing that is a direct violation of the Terms of Use for the site. This has been brought up several times and will probably not happen.

March 21, 2008

Publishing that is a direct violation of the Terms of Use for the site. This has been brought up several times and will probably not happen.

Thanks mtn-man for the update. Just to be clear, no one did publish the list due to the terms and conditions at Groundspeak. I didn't want anyone to think that's what I meant.

But I'm curious why Groundspeak doesn't do this? Seems like an easy enough of a thing to do and it will reduce the impact on the servers only running this query once.

I know I'm relatively new to geocaching, so I apologize for the redundancy as you stated this has come up before.

7.3k · March 21, 2008

I assume by "publish" you mean allow an all state PQ.

California is around 43K caches, Texas 23K, Florida 15K - that's a lot of data.

I think it would be hard on the site and over-used. On any given day you can grab 2500 caches. Surely that's enough to plan one day's caching? As far as planning for meeting challenge caches, at least everyone is on the same playing field. A certain inherent kludginess to the cache planning. It's part of the challenge ;-)

1.6k · March 21, 2008

Another help would be to add an option to limit the PQ returns to only include caches from a specific state and/or country. You'd still be limited to 500 caches, but the number of PQ's required would be reduced because you wouldn't "waste" PQ space on caches in adjoining states/countries.

1.5k · March 21, 2008

Another help would be to add an option to limit the PQ returns to only include caches from a specific state and/or country. You'd still be limited to 500 caches, but the number of PQ's required would be reduced because you wouldn't "waste" PQ space on caches in adjoining states/countries.

That's already an option. When editing a PQ, scroll down to the within section, and choose States/Provinces]. The box is very tiny and cluttered with hundreds of provinces/states/etc that are not in the US, but US states are still buried in there somewhere.

You can even control-click (command-click on Mac) to select multiple states.

1.6k · March 21, 2008

That's already an option. When editing a PQ, scroll down to the within section, and choose States/Provinces]. The box is very tiny and cluttered with hundreds of provinces/states/etc that are not in the US, but US states are still buried in there somewhere.

Cool! Ya learn sometin' new every day!

11.3k · March 21, 2008

Another help would be to add an option to limit the PQ returns to only include caches from a specific state and/or country. You'd still be limited to 500 caches, but the number of PQ's required would be reduced because you wouldn't "waste" PQ space on caches in adjoining states/countries.

Just remember if you limit to a single state, you can't use the "Home Coordinates" option (unless this has finally been fixed.) Enter the coordinates by hand, or use the GC number for a nearby cache. Those options do work.

3.8k · March 21, 2008

As a direct answer to the OP about why Groundspeak does not publish this file.

My thought process goes like this. Numbers are not accurate or even guesstimates just used for easy math.

100 people in the state want all the caches in the state.

State has 5000 caches

The remaining 9000 people just want to run one cache that gets their nearest 500 caches

Each cache is 1K of data.

9000 runs of 500 caches everyday is 315Gig of data a week

100 people run 10 queries of 500 every other day for the week to refresh their data 3.5 times a week. 17.5 Gigs of data.

332.5 Gigs total downloaded per week

Groundspeak makes the total state download available.

The 9000 decide to download the full state once a week 4500Gigs of data and they still want the 500 nearest caches closest to their home updated daily. for another 315Gig of data

The 100 people who were doing multiple queries download the full state download 5Gig of data for the state they are in and the 5 gigs of data for the 4 surrounding states and then run 5 queries for each of the other states on the remaining days so that they can have a database of 35 nearest states every week. 175 Gigs per person is 17500Gigs of data.

Now we are allowing 22315 Gigs of downloads per week.

1 person decides he is putting too much of a load on the Groundspeak servers and stops doing daily updates of all the surrounding states not quite offsetting the 10 people who decide to open a second premium account so that they can download the remaining 15 states.

This doesn't even account for the fact that 5000 caches in a state is a pretty small state as far as caches go. 5000 caches doesn't even get southern california covered.

PS. I am home with the flu and not thinking quite lucid so my math may be wrong but you get the idea.

March 21, 2008

PS. I am home with the flu and not thinking quite lucid so my math may be wrong but you get the idea.

Since you are home with the flu I won't pick on your math. :blink: I hope you feel better soon. By my calculation your math would should be in megabytes and not gigs. Anyway, I suspect a couple of things, but I was hoping Groundspeak would put why they don't do this to rest.

Here's what I thought they might say for why they don't. This did not come from GC and was just my "hunches".

1. Groundspeak is concerned about people not buying premium memberships. In this case make the state query another "premium" item to get people to get the membership. I think anyone serious in caching is going to get the membership anyway. It's reasonably priced and it's worth supported so the sport/game/whatever, can continue. We all know that they have costs they need to cover. There's only so much milk you can get for free, before you need to buy the feed for the cow. :unsure:

2. They are concerned some of their "competitors" will steal their data an post it to their sites. Calling a spade a spade this could already be occurring, it just is more difficult. It is possible to get an entire state, you just need to run many staggered PQs of 500 to get it.

3. Data transfer limitations/costs on the Groundspeak servers. Although I would think this might go down a bit as less people would run daily PQs and just download the entire state and use GSAK. That's what I was thinking about doing anyway.

As much as I'm hooked on caching, searching for caches on gc.com can be a pain. There isn't an easy way to sort or filter lists of caches. Even if you're only looking for the closest 500. I can do route planning and other sorting and filtering with GSAK once I have the list.

On a slight tangent, but this somewhat spurred my interest in the entire state. I'd love to be able to download zip files right from gc.com vs having to have them mailed to me. I travel a lot. I would prefer to just look in the google map for the area I'll be in then say, yep, that's what I want. Generate the gpx file for me. And bang, I download it and run GSAK to send to my GPSr. Let's face it, GSAK, and others, are only as popular as they are due to the limitations on GC.com. I'll concede, I might be the "exception to the rule" and get off my soap box, but I think there are lots of folks that do this a distraction while traveling.

Working in an IT field, this just seems like a "no brainer" to me, but when I asked on the MnGCA forums I thought I was going to shot for even asking the question.

Looking forward to a response from GC, then I'll let sleeping dogs lie. :blink:

March 21, 2008

I once thought it would be a good idea to set up a GSAK database for the entire state of California. It took more than two weeks to get all the PQ's run and downloaded, and by the time I got out to do some findin' I noticed that much of the week old data was stale. I kept finding myself hunting for archived caches and there were new ones I didn't even have a record of. Needless to say, it was a huge pain to maintain, and I now run a PQ (or two) for every trip I take so I can work from "fresh" data. So it's only a thousand caches... that oughta' keep me out of trouble for a day or so! :unsure:

DCC

14.3k · March 21, 2008

Needless to say, it was a huge pain to maintain, and I now run a PQ (or two) for every trip I take so I can work from "fresh" data. So it's only a thousand caches... that oughta' keep me out of trouble for a day or so! DCC

It would be a pain. I'm not sure why some people like pain because it is so easy to download 1000 fresh updated cache pages to keep you busy for at least a day. :unsure:

March 21, 2008

Needless to say, it was a huge pain to maintain, and I now run a PQ (or two) for every trip I take so I can work from "fresh" data. So it's only a thousand caches... that oughta' keep me out of trouble for a day or so! DCC
It would be a pain. I'm not sure why some people like pain because it is so easy to download 1000 fresh updated cache pages to keep you busy for at least a day.

I wasn't looking for the whole state because I wanted to inflict some sort pain upon myself, at least that wasn't the intention. :blink: Nor do I disagree 1000 caches is enough to keep me busy. The reason is where I am at. For me, I can only query 8 miles from my house and exceed the 500. I'm often outside that 8 miles, but I could be N S E W, I don't always know. Having the whole state would make it easier for me as I always have my laptop with me.

Anyway, seems that this isn't an issue for most, so I suppose I'll just drop it. I thought more people would want this type of feature.

14.3k · March 21, 2008

Needless to say, it was a huge pain to maintain, and I now run a PQ (or two) for every trip I take so I can work from "fresh" data. So it's only a thousand caches... that oughta' keep me out of trouble for a day or so! DCC
It would be a pain. I'm not sure why some people like pain because it is so easy to download 1000 fresh updated cache pages to keep you busy for at least a day.

I wasn't looking for the whole state because I wanted to inflict some sort pain upon myself, at least that wasn't the intention. Nor do I disagree 1000 caches is enough to keep me busy. The reason is where I am at. For me, I can only query 8 miles from my house and exceed the 500. I'm often outside that 8 miles, but I could be N S E W, I don't always know. Having the whole state would make it easier for me as I always have my laptop with me.

Anyway, seems that this isn't an issue for most, so I suppose I'll just drop it. I thought more people would want this type of feature.

If you want to expand your range then just run 5 PQs centered at the same point with different date ranges when the caches were hidden to get 500 caches in each PQ. This will get you a circle of 2500 updated cache pages. Make sure to hide the disabled ones or ones that you have no intention of getting. Edited March 21, 2008 by TrailGators

8k · March 21, 2008

I thought more people would want this type of feature.

Quite a number of people would want this kind of feature and it has been asked for many times before. Of course it more useful in some states that in others. California for one has way too many caches for an entire state to be useful. Cachers in small states or in cities near state boundaries probably want to include nearby areas in other states. The system is designed to let you get caches either by state or by caches within a given distance from a point. If the PQ returns more than 500 caches you can use the cache placed date to break it down to several smaller PQ with less than 500 caches a piece. Some people may find the need to get several thousand caches in a area and use offline tools to further refine the searches and the system works well for this by allowing up to 5 PQ per day.

As stated above, this has been requested before and TPTB have stated that they have no plans to provide canned PQs. You might not hear from Groundspeak on this so I would suggest you search for some of the earlier threads. The reasons you gave in your earlier post may have something to do with the reasons that they have consistently rejected this idea.

Here's what I thought they might say for why they don't. This did not come from GC and was just my "hunches".

1. Groundspeak is concerned about people not buying premium memberships. In this case make the state query another "premium" item to get people to get the membership. I think anyone serious in caching is going to get the membership anyway. It's reasonably priced and it's worth supported so the sport/game/whatever, can continue. We all know that they have costs they need to cover. There's only so much milk you can get for free, before you need to buy the feed for the cow.

2. They are concerned some of their "competitors" will steal their data an post it to their sites. Calling a spade a spade this could already be occurring, it just is more difficult. It is possible to get an entire state, you just need to run many staggered PQs of 500 to get it.

3. Data transfer limitations/costs on the Groundspeak servers. Although I would think this might go down a bit as less people would run daily PQs and just download the entire state and use GSAK. That's what I was thinking about doing anyway.

I don't think item 1 is much of a reason - if there were to be a canned query it would likely be available to only available to premium members.

Item 2 is my "hunch" for the real reason. Certainly people can steal the data now but why make it easy. If you had state queries you would soon have people trading state queries and building up large chunks with out of date geocaching.com data. By forcing people to set up an run many pocket queries it just becomes too much of a hassle to keep an update copy of any significant portion of the Geocaching.com database. Of course, this "punishes" individuals who may want to keep a copy for their personal use only. Geocaching.com has decided that with 5 PQ per day individuals would be able to keep any reasonable sized personally copy of the data fairly up to date. Of course this requires some effort.

It is hard to gauge the impact that having canned queries for entire states would have on the Geocaching.com servers. It may be that enough people would use the canned queries and skip the customized PQs in order for this to make a difference. It may be that you would have a lot more people trying to depend on offline databases populated by these mega-queries that while GFX file generation resources would be less the bandwidth for sending data would go up.

Another issue that Groundspeak likes to bring up is the freshness of the data. New caches get published all the time and old caches get archived. Any pocket query you get may be stale just a few minutes after it is generated. However by getting custom PQs for a smaller areas just before you are going to use them to go caching you can reduce the problems of looking for an archived cache (or missing one that was recently published). If you were to have canned state queries, this raises the question of how often to generate them. Would once a week be enough or should they be generated every day or even several times a day? And since the geocacher now has the whole state, might they load up their GPS with data they had downloaded a month ago and haven't updated? Sure these things happen now with PQs. Lots of people will post that you shouldn't be keeping offline databases if you are not prepared to be looking for something that has gone missing or archived since you last updated.

On a slight tangent, but this somewhat spurred my interest in the entire state. I'd love to be able to download zip files right from gc.com vs having to have them mailed to me. I travel a lot. I would prefer to just look in the google map for the area I'll be in then say, yep, that's what I want. Generate the gpx file for me. And bang, I download it and run GSAK to send to my GPSr.

Interestingly enough, Jeremy has indicated that this may be the way PQs will work in v2. I suspect there have been issues with ISPs blocking emails from Geocaching.com due to the large attachments and that may be driving Jeremy in the direction of creating GPX files on demand and storing them online for download. There is already the capability to create a PQ directly from the Geocaching.com Google Map page. I suspect that with the ability to get an instant run PQ file for downloading this could be provided not only from the map but from any Geocaching.com search page.

8.9k · March 21, 2008

I'm often outside that 8 miles, but I could be N S E W, I don't always know. Having the whole state would make it easier for me as I always have my laptop with me.

If you want to expand your range then just run 5 PQs centered at the same point with different date ranges when the caches were hidden to get 500 caches in each PQ.

Illinois has about 7400 active caches at this moment. I just set up (but not ran) the 16 pocket queries using date range to get the most efficient use of PQs to get all of the caches. The last two date range queries grab 426 caches placed between Jan 19 2008 and Mar 15 2008, and 74 caches placed after Mar 16 - so I could have done it in 15 PQs, but tomorrow I won't be able to.

So - I have it set up right now so I could get the entire state in 3 days. Or I could purchase 3 premium membership accounts and get them all in one day.

I didn't limit the caches to the particular caches that I typically hunt for (when I hunt). I'm sure that would have limited the number of PQs considerably.

My point is that if you REALLY want the whole state, you can do it now - but it takes some work.

Edited March 21, 2008 by Markwell

March 21, 2008

One of the big reasons I've seen here is stale data. Groundspeak and GC.com want us to have the freshest, most reliable data we can get our hands on. Do you have any idea how many caches are published, enabled, disabled, and archived in a given day?

I've got a problem similar to yours. A 'full' pocket query, 500 caches, doesn't cover a lot of territory. But you know something? If I'm on a caching run, I don't want puzzles. I certainly don't want 5 terrain caches when it's snowing. I'm not climbing a tree, paddling to an island, etc. in this weather.

But hey, why not a bunch of 3/3 or lower traditionals and multis? That'd fit the bill. That's why the pocket query system works the way it does. Why do I want those puzzles that nobody can figure out on the fly? Customization, my friend. Customization.

3.8k · March 22, 2008

Although I don't think a full state pre canned query will ever be I am hopeful that another idea of mine might someday come to fruition.

I would love to see pre canned queries set up around major population centers with a set radius. For instance every city with a population of over 300 thousand people would have a query with a 50 miles radius. I think this would cover a great percentage of folks without enabling those who want to steal the data.

21.9k · March 22, 2008

The good news is: "download a zip file with your query results" has previously been announced by Groundspeak as a planned upgrade for the future. This would be in addition to the option of having the query file sent to you by e-mail as it is now. Pick your preferred delivery method.

The bad news is: this is the *only* planned upgrade to pocket queries in the forseeable future. Groundspeak has stated this in previous threads on the same and similar subjects. So, don't look for statewide queries any time soon.

April 10, 2008

How about a state query that only contained the cache id and coords? How much strain would that put on the system if it was updated daily or weekly and placed somewhere for downloading? I'm sure the file would be considerably smaller.

With files like this a person could load them into a program like MS Streets and then plan how to prepare PQs and possibly plan trip routes.

8.9k · April 10, 2008

Throw in the date placed and you've got something. Remember - overlapping circles is an inefficient way of producing queries. Instead, one big one and use ranges of "date placed" and you will not duplicate pulling caches.

So - what about a single LOC file that also includes the Date Placed?

3.2k · April 10, 2008

How about a state query that only contained the cache id and coords? How much strain would that put on the system if it was updated daily or weekly and placed somewhere for downloading? I'm sure the file would be considerably smaller.

But then the user would not have the cache description and still be forced to look them up one by one. Without the description, there is no way to know restrictions such as hours, hazards, etc.

20.7k · April 10, 2008

Needless to say, it was a huge pain to maintain, and I now run a PQ (or two) for every trip I take so I can work from "fresh" data. So it's only a thousand caches... that oughta' keep me out of trouble for a day or so! DCC
It would be a pain. I'm not sure why some people like pain because it is so easy to download 1000 fresh updated cache pages to keep you busy for at least a day.

I wasn't looking for the whole state because I wanted to inflict some sort pain upon myself, at least that wasn't the intention. Nor do I disagree 1000 caches is enough to keep me busy. The reason is where I am at. For me, I can only query 8 miles from my house and exceed the 500. I'm often outside that 8 miles, but I could be N S E W, I don't always know. Having the whole state would make it easier for me as I always have my laptop with me.

Anyway, seems that this isn't an issue for most, so I suppose I'll just drop it. I thought more people would want this type of feature.

If you want to expand your range then just run 5 PQs centered at the same point with different date ranges when the caches were hidden to get 500 caches in each PQ. This will get you a circle of 2500 updated cache pages. Make sure to hide the disabled ones or ones that you have no intention of getting.

Also, it's in your benefit to tweak you PQs to exclude as many caches that you are not interested in as you can. Having every cache sent to you wastes time and resources.

April 12, 2008

But then the user would not have the cache description and still be forced to look them up one by one. Without the description, there is no way to know restrictions such as hours, hazards, etc.

The point was to talk them into a statewide file that will not put too much strain on their system. After you see where you want to go you can create a regular PQ that will get the rest of the info. Maybe in the future we will be able to upload a list of waypoint codes and get a PQ for just them.

11.3k · April 12, 2008

But then the user would not have the cache description and still be forced to look them up one by one. Without the description, there is no way to know restrictions such as hours, hazards, etc.

The point was to talk them into a statewide file that will not put too much strain on their system. After you see where you want to go you can create a regular PQ that will get the rest of the info. Maybe in the future we will be able to upload a list of waypoint codes and get a PQ for just them.

Won't the "Caches Along a Route" work? There are caches everywhere, so just pick a highway and create your route in Google Earth and get a PQ for the kinds of caches you want to look for.

When I travel, I only get caches in my PQs with at Terrain rating of less than '2' and a Difficulty rating of less than '2'.

For this cache-rich area, I get all the caches in my "Date-Placed" PQs, but then I filter those within GSAK depending on where I am going and what I'll have time to look for.

Getting all the caches in the State of California, and several other large, cache-rich States doesn't seem at all practical . . . For some smaller, less cache-rich states, using several "Date Placed" PQs should get all the caches in all directions . . .

14.3k · April 12, 2008

Needless to say, it was a huge pain to maintain, and I now run a PQ (or two) for every trip I take so I can work from "fresh" data. So it's only a thousand caches... that oughta' keep me out of trouble for a day or so! DCC
It would be a pain. I'm not sure why some people like pain because it is so easy to download 1000 fresh updated cache pages to keep you busy for at least a day.

I wasn't looking for the whole state because I wanted to inflict some sort pain upon myself, at least that wasn't the intention. Nor do I disagree 1000 caches is enough to keep me busy. The reason is where I am at. For me, I can only query 8 miles from my house and exceed the 500. I'm often outside that 8 miles, but I could be N S E W, I don't always know. Having the whole state would make it easier for me as I always have my laptop with me.

Anyway, seems that this isn't an issue for most, so I suppose I'll just drop it. I thought more people would want this type of feature.

If you want to expand your range then just run 5 PQs centered at the same point with different date ranges when the caches were hidden to get 500 caches in each PQ. This will get you a circle of 2500 updated cache pages. Make sure to hide the disabled ones or ones that you have no intention of getting.

Also, it's in your benefit to tweak you PQs to exclude as many caches that you are not interested in as you can. Having every cache sent to you wastes time and resources.

True! Be sure to check the box to not download caches from your ignore list!

April 12, 2008

Ok - I'm also having fun having to run multiple PQ's just to keep up to date for the North Island of New Zealand.

I could drop my 10 or so querries down to 1 or 2 by a couple of modifications happening:

Firstly if the 500 max was raised to 1000

or/and

another option added - "updated in the last 48 hours"

which would really simplify things for me somewhat and make life easy

11.3k · April 12, 2008

Ok - I'm also having fun having to run multiple PQ's just to keep up to date for the North Island of New Zealand.

I could drop my 10 or so querries down to 1 or 2 by a couple of modifications happening:

Firstly if the 500 max was raised to 1000

or/and

another option added - "updated in the last 48 hours"

which would really simplify things for me somewhat and make life easy

How many caches are on the North Island of New Zealand? Are there more than 5000? If there aren't you shouldn't need ten PQs to get all of them if you set them up by "Date Placed."

Getting them set up the first time is tedious, but after that it is easy to keep your GSAK database relatively up-to-date if you get "Notifications" for caches that are "Published," "Archived," "Disabled," and "Re-Enabled."

14.3k · April 12, 2008

Ok - I'm also having fun having to run multiple PQ's just to keep up to date for the North Island of New Zealand.

I could drop my 10 or so querries down to 1 or 2 by a couple of modifications happening:

Firstly if the 500 max was raised to 1000

or/and

another option added - "updated in the last 48 hours"

which would really simplify things for me somewhat and make life easy

You can run two PQs centered on the same point split by two date ranges. It isn't that hard to do.

April 13, 2008

Maybe in the future we will be able to upload a list of waypoint codes and get a PQ for just them.

You can do this now. Set up a bookmark of just the waypoints you want and run the query off of that.

21.9k · April 13, 2008

Ok - I'm also having fun having to run multiple PQ's just to keep up to date for the North Island of New Zealand.

I could drop my 10 or so querries down to 1 or 2 by a couple of modifications happening:

Firstly if the 500 max was raised to 1000

or/and

another option added - "updated in the last 48 hours"

which would really simplify things for me somewhat and make life easy

North Island, with 1870 active caches, takes just four queries to download by someone who has found less than 370 caches and who doesn't exclude any cache for any reason from their queries. If I lived there, I'd run date-separated queries for the whole Island on Tuesday (picking up logs and new caches from the weekend) plus one for my home area on Friday (to get ready for the weekend). That's five queries. Repeat frequency as necessary, depending on level of obsession.

April 17, 2008

Create a route. Cincinnati, OH to Rapid City, SD to Las Vegas, NV back to Cincinnati, OH -- then create a PQ from that route and look and see what you get. The problem with using CACHES ALONG A ROUTE is that they follow a straight line, the roads don't. Using GSAK and MS Streets and can create a list of caches that follows exactly where I want to go, but I have to make many PQs to get the ones I want. If I had just the ID's and Coords I could pick where I place my PQs and make the most out of them. The best way would be if I could then upload the ID's into a bookmark list.

But then the user would not have the cache description and still be forced to look them up one by one. Without the description, there is no way to know restrictions such as hours, hazards, etc.

The point was to talk them into a statewide file that will not put too much strain on their system. After you see where you want to go you can create a regular PQ that will get the rest of the info. Maybe in the future we will be able to upload a list of waypoint codes and get a PQ for just them.

Won't the "Caches Along a Route" work? There are caches everywhere, so just pick a highway and create your route in Google Earth and get a PQ for the kinds of caches you want to look for.

When I travel, I only get caches in my PQs with at Terrain rating of less than '2' and a Difficulty rating of less than '2'.

For this cache-rich area, I get all the caches in my "Date-Placed" PQs, but then I filter those within GSAK depending on where I am going and what I'll have time to look for.

Getting all the caches in the State of California, and several other large, cache-rich States doesn't seem at all practical . . . For some smaller, less cache-rich states, using several "Date Placed" PQs should get all the caches in all directions . . .

3.2k · April 17, 2008

The problem with using CACHES ALONG A ROUTE is that they follow a straight line, the roads don't.

This is incorrect. Caches along a route do follow thee streets.

Instructions for use can be found here.

21.9k · April 17, 2008

Create a route. Cincinnati, OH to Rapid City, SD to Las Vegas, NV back to Cincinnati, OH -- then create a PQ from that route and look and see what you get. The problem with using CACHES ALONG A ROUTE is that they follow a straight line, the roads don't. Using GSAK and MS Streets and can create a list of caches that follows exactly where I want to go, but I have to make many PQs to get the ones I want. If I had just the ID's and Coords I could pick where I place my PQs and make the most out of them. The best way would be if I could then upload the ID's into a bookmark list.

First off, I'd recommend using several route queries for a trip of this distance. For my recent 1750 mile roadtrip, I used five route queries ranging in length from 100 to 250 miles, plus radius queries around the cities I'd be caching in. If you travel through a cache-dense city on the interstate, your 500 caches will be used up quite quickly. I stop my routes on the outskirts of the city I'm visiting and pick up on the other side. A smaller route length means you can search in a broader band on either side of the highway (for example, 4 miles instead of 1 mile, to return 500 caches over the route).

My route queries don't follow a straight line. They follow the highways that get me from point A to point B. I'm not sure what you're doing in order to get "straight line" route queries.

April 17, 2008

Now if I wanted to download all 50222 caches in my state (California) I would have to setup 101 pocket queries each separate by date and run them over three weeks, not very practical.

If the all those caches were combined into a single PQ the resulting file would be > 50mb my email server would probably choke on it, also not practical. GSAK would probably choke on it also, but I have never tried it with a file that large.

I personally would be happy if once a week you could get all caches within 100 miles of your home coordinates, but I don't think that will happen so for now I will have to be content with the 14 date separated PQ's I run to map out a 50 mile radius.

Edited April 17, 2008 by Blanston12

April 18, 2008

Needless to say, it was a huge pain to maintain, and I now run a PQ (or two) for every trip I take so I can work from "fresh" data. So it's only a thousand caches... that oughta' keep me out of trouble for a day or so! DCC
It would be a pain. I'm not sure why some people like pain because it is so easy to download 1000 fresh updated cache pages to keep you busy for at least a day.

I wasn't looking for the whole state because I wanted to inflict some sort pain upon myself, at least that wasn't the intention. Nor do I disagree 1000 caches is enough to keep me busy. The reason is where I am at. For me, I can only query 8 miles from my house and exceed the 500. I'm often outside that 8 miles, but I could be N S E W, I don't always know. Having the whole state would make it easier for me as I always have my laptop with me.

Anyway, seems that this isn't an issue for most, so I suppose I'll just drop it. I thought more people would want this type of feature.

Sounds like you need one of those mobile phone caching devices, so you can get fresh data wherever you are.

PocketQuery for entire state

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