the shape of my island is messing with my pqs

[+dorqie]

So I live on a weird shaped island. Some points on other islands, some points on the mainland, and some points in the USA are actually closer to my home location than points in my own city. (as the crow flys of course)

I get caches that are not practical for me to find in almost all of my seraches.

I'm particularly annoyed, because I thought there was a new night cache in my area, but it turned out to be in Washington. Silly me, I didn't think to check on that before i read the cache page and got all excited.

I wish there was some fancy way to limit my searches to my own island :S

[jholly]

Its fun living in the land of islands and peninsulas. GSAK is your friend. Define a polygon filter for your island and when you import the PQ apply the reverse filter to eliminate the non-island caches. I have the same problem. I wish GS would consider polygon PQ's instead of simple circles.

[+GeoGeeBee]

So I live on a weird shaped island. Some points on other islands, some points on the mainland, and some points in the USA are actually closer to my home location than points in my own city. (as the crow flys of course)

I get caches that are not practical for me to find in almost all of my seraches.

I'm particularly annoyed, because I thought there was a new night cache in my area, but it turned out to be in Washington. Silly me, I didn't think to check on that before i read the cache page and got all excited.

I wish there was some fancy way to limit my searches to my own island :S

 

You can't limit the searches, but...

 

If you use GSAK, you can set up a polygon and filter for caches that are inside that polygon. You would have to download a PQ, load it into GSAK, apply the polygon filter, and then you'll only see the caches that are on your island.

 

http://www.gsak.net/help/hs45630.htm

 

Edit: jholly types faster than me.

Edited June 16, 2011 by GeoGeeBee

[+Spraginator]

Well, the USA part can be solved by selecting "Canada" (I'm assuming) when you set up your pocket query. For your own island, you'll just have to fool around with the distance radius to see what gets the best result.

 

It might help if you told us what island you're on so we can see the exact situation and try to help. I understand if you don't want to do this for privacy.

 

Edit: Nevermind, the posters that posted while I was typing had much better suggestions.

Edited June 16, 2011 by Spraginator

[+dorqie]

Wow, thanks for the fast responses. I honestly didn't think there was a solution to this!

And if anyone wanted to find out what island I live on, it would be pretty easy by reading my logged caches, although I believe it even says on my profile.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

You don't even need GSAK for this. Use Caches along a Route to set multiple points around your island. if you setup enough points and you have a small enough distance from your route, you'll hit everything on your island and nowhere else.

[+niraD]

Another possibility might be to use multiple PQs, each of which covers part of the island.

 

Another possibility might be to define a route that covers the entire island, and to use caches along a route to generate a PQ of caches within a given distance of that route.

[+Too Tall John]

You don't even need GSAK for this. Use Caches along a Route to set multiple points around your island. if you setup enough points and you have a small enough distance from your route, you'll hit everything on your island and nowhere else.

Another possibility might be to use multiple PQs, each of which covers part of the island.

 

Another possibility might be to define a route that covers the entire island, and to use caches along a route to generate a PQ of caches within a given distance of that route.

What they said, although this only helps with PQ's, you also mentioned notifications, I think. Perhaps the first half of niraD's post might be starting down the right path. A series of notifications, each one big enough to cover it's own area, but not extend out to the mainland. The only problem is that these would overlap, so you would get multiple notifications for caches in the overlapping areas.

[+Coldgears]

You don't even need GSAK for this. Use Caches along a Route to set multiple points around your island. if you setup enough points and you have a small enough distance from your route, you'll hit everything on your island and nowhere else.

Another possibility might be to use multiple PQs, each of which covers part of the island.

 

Another possibility might be to define a route that covers the entire island, and to use caches along a route to generate a PQ of caches within a given distance of that route.

What they said, although this only helps with PQ's, you also mentioned notifications, I think. Perhaps the first half of niraD's post might be starting down the right path. A series of notifications, each one big enough to cover it's own area, but not extend out to the mainland. The only problem is that these would overlap, so you would get multiple notifications for caches in the overlapping areas.

Overlapping is not a bad thing, I have two PQ's, one for 10 miles, one for 25 miles, when it over laps I get a (2) next to the email, so I know which one is 10 miles and which is 25.

[+popokiiti]

Wow, thanks for the fast responses. I honestly didn't think there was a solution to this!

And if anyone wanted to find out what island I live on, it would be pretty easy by reading my logged caches, although I believe it even says on my profile.

Yep, it does - that's how i found out we were "neighbours." It was awkward getting caches just for the Ucluelet/Tofino/Pacific Rim area last month, but eventually we got enough.

[+TXHooligans]

caches along a route is a good idea.. your start point and end points can be real close then drag new points to draw your polygon. pretty slick idea.. gotta remember that one.

[+Too Tall John]

I've thought about doing the Caches Along a Route thing around here. With the White Mountain National Forest so close by, there are caches that I'll never get to on the off chance that I'm passing by that are included in my regular PQ, but there are places I go somewhat regularly that are beyond the limits of the same PQ, so if I can figure out the right route, I should be able to include the caches I might find on a whim, but can still load up those caches that are out of the way when... I'm going out of the way to get them.

 

Oh, and it isn't a D/T filterable thing, either. There's caches along the Kancamagus Highway that are almost PnGs, but there's no reason to go down the Kanc when I'm doing errands.

Edited June 17, 2011 by Too Tall John

[+johnvanderlip]

And then there's the puzzles out in the water. You have to solve them only to find they're on the wrong side.

That's my problem.