Searching an area for TBs

[+Abby's Followers]

Anyone ever wish they could search their area for TBs or coins like they do for caches?

 

I sure do..

 

Or maybe there is and I missed it?

[jholly]

Anyone ever wish they could search their area for TBs or coins like they do for caches?

 

I sure do..

 

Or maybe there is and I missed it?

That feature would be a source of endless frustration. The cache inventories are hardly ever correct or up to date, to the point where I totally ignore them and if I find a trackable I consider it a bonus find.

[+J Grouchy]

I swear there used to be a map feature on the Trackables page...but it's been so long since I looked for it...probably been gone a long time.

 

It was never reliable anyway, what with all the well-documented theft, dishonesty and poorly maintained caches as often discussed in the TB forums.

Edited June 3, 2015 by J Grouchy

[+cerberus1]

Luckily everything's so messed up now that the serious trackable thieves/hoarders have to take their chances like the rest of us.

Edited June 3, 2015 by cerberus1

[+The A-Team]

I swear there used to be a map feature on the Trackables page...but it's been so long since I looked for it...probably been gone a long time.

 

It was never reliable anyway, what with all the well-documented theft, dishonesty and poorly maintained caches as often discussed in the TB forums.

I think you're talking about the one on the Geocoin page. That's only for coins, though.

 

Like the others said, trackables have been dying a slow death for a long time. A spot-check of the 10 closest coins to home on the above map showed that only 2 are likely to still be there. A 20% accuracy rate is pretty bad. A couple of years ago, I did a more in-depth analysis of my area and found that approximately 80% of the listed trackables were missing or likely missing, and I fully expect it has only gotten worse since then.

 

If you really want to search for trackables, the best way would be to use the Pocket Query form. You can create a PQ with the necessary criteria to cover the area you want, then tick the "Have Travel Bugs" flag. You don't need to have it actually run, you can just view the preview to get a list of caches with listed trackables. You'd have to do a lot of research to determine which trackables are possibly still there or not, though. Odds are, most of them aren't there.

[Cascade Reviewer]

I'm moving this thread to the Travel Bug forum.

[+TriciaG]

I have a PQ set up to check for trackables. Yeah, it's mostly inaccurate, but after a while I know which area caches have a ghost TB in them, and I can discount them in my mind when looking at the map.

[+cerberus1]

You'd have to do a lot of research to determine which trackables are possibly still there or not, though. Odds are, most of them aren't there.

+1

The last two years, any trackables we've found were placed in error ( a cache other than logged), or in one of our "5s" that don't see many visits.

- Don't know what the thinking is, dropping a trackable in a cache that gets 2-3 visits a year... maybe.

Edited June 3, 2015 by cerberus1

[+Auld Pharrrt]

OK, this is a bit long-winded and it's been a while since I used it, but if I'm specifically targeting TB's here goes.

 

I generate a PQ listing all the caches with trackables listed in their inventory in the area/route I'm interested in.

I put the resulting PQ into GSAK and remove my own "FOUND" logs (if there are any.)

I run a macro (I found in GSAK forums,) called DELETEMISSINGTRACKABLES.GSK which will remove any TB's that are listed as missing (I keep a list of known missing TB's in Excel which can be copied and pasted into the macro.)

I set the search filter in GSAK to TB - YES and save the resulting list of caches with TB's ... (save current subset) ... into a blank database in GSAK (I call this database TB-CHECK).

I run a second macro (also found on GSAK forums,) called ListDatesOfTBsInCache.gsk on this new database which will check the Geocaching.com's API's - this process takes quite a long time, so be patient. This macro returns the dates the trackables were logged into the cache, and the dates of recent logs etc. I copy and paste the results into Excel.

In Excel I have a few simple formulae which compare the current date to the TB's log date and the cache's last log date.

If the dates fall into the category where I think the TB might be there then they get highlighted in one colour.

If the dates fall into the category where I think they are probably missing in action they get highlighted in a different colour.

If the dates fall into a grey area where I think it's 50/50 the trackable gets highlighted in another colour and flagged for me to check and decide.

The resulting Excel list I then re-load into the first macro and re-run this to remove any newly missing TB's from the GSAK database.

Then I rebuild the final database in GSAK to include up to 2,000 caches for my GPS and export it etc. or if I'm simply targeting TB's I export the TB-CHECK database only.

I then delete all the caches in my databases that I no longer need and leave them empty for the next time, but the latest list of known missing TB's will remain in the macro for the next time ... this is why I run it twice ... the first time removes known MIA TB's from the previous session. Then, after going through the processes above, when I copy and paste the new list into the macro for the 2nd run the latest mia tb's are removed from the listings in GSAK and this latest list is kept in the macro when I'm finished so it becomes the base list for my next session. I hope that makes sense.

 

I should add that the list of known missing TB's I keep only covers the caches which are reasonably local to my home (up to about 50 miles) I originally started doing this as a newbie cacher to collect TB's as I was going on holiday and wanted to take some TB's with me and I was getting really fed up driving for miles to caches which didn't have TB's (it was before I knew to research the inventory, I was a real newbie.) Now I kinda try to keep an eye on local caches as I am aware of a couple which seem to have a history of TB's going missing and I'd rather get to it before a muggler does so I can move it onto a safer cache.