Pocket Query Large Area

[+Pacar]

I'm wanting to map an entire county into a number of pocket queries and I'm wondering if there is an easy way to do it?  Is there any third party software out there that can assist, has anyone else set out on such a task? If so, how did you go about it??

 

Cheers,

Pacar

[+HHL]

Read this: http://markwell.us/pq.htm#tips

Then go there: https://project-gc.com/Tools/PQSplit

 

Hans

 

NB: Oops, just noted that I possibly misread your post. Are you actually mean County and not country? If so, there will be solutions with third party apps like GSAK.

Edited April 16, 2019 by HHL

[+mellers]

I was just about to recommend GSAK. https://www.gsak.net/index.php

You can use it to "get" geocaches via the API. You can specify a circle or rectangle area... or choose a region (within which you want the caches to originate) and you can get up to 6000 caches in one extraction. That particular command isn't something I've used but it may be that the 6000 limit is also per day (as it is when you want to refresh cache data, which I do a lot).

 

 

[+Pacar]

36 minutes ago, HHL said:

Read this: http://markwell.us/pq.htm#tips

Then go there: https://project-gc.com/Tools/PQSplit

 

Hans

 

NB: Oops, just noted that I possibly misread your post. Are you actually mean County and not country? If so, there will be solutions with third party apps like GSAK.

Hans,

thanks for the reply, it's not quite what I'm looking for, but it certainly has given me some ideas with regard to the use of date ranges to reduce the size of the returned pocket query and might be something I can build upon

 

Pacar

[+Pacar]

Just now, mellers said:

I was just about to recommend GSAK. https://www.gsak.net/index.php

You can use it to "get" geocaches via the API. You can specify a circle or rectangle area... or choose a region (within which you want the caches to originate) and you can get up to 6000 caches in one extraction. That particular command isn't something I've used but it may be that the 6000 limit is also per day (as it is when you want to refresh cache data, which I do a lot).

 

 

Thanks for this, I was wanting to use pocket queries in particular as they are built up quite quickly for download, where as with GSAK I seem to be waiting a long time each time I run a "get geocache" query.

 

Pacar

[+MartyBartfast]

Assuming you want to ensure you get all caches within a county (e.g. Cumbria), and don't want to get ONLY caches within a county, I would:

Set up a number of PQs, selecting the country UK and the region North West England, then centered on a location roughly central to Cumbria; and set the search radius to prevent it straying too far into Lancashire. Then set the "placed between" dates such that each PQ returns just under 1000 caches. 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by MartyBartfast

[+mellers]

In which case, to use PQs to get the caches, you will have to set the filter for the region in which your county is situated for each PQ. That's the smallest area you can go down to with PQs. This will generate far more caches than you want or need - but you can pop them in to a database and once you've run the county/state/country macro, you will be able to sort out only those which are in the county that you're interested in.

It's likely that your region will have more than 1000 caches in it (which is the maximum PQ limit), so you will have to split them up using the date they were placed as the filter, to get every one. Project-GC's PQ splitter tool https://project-gc.com/Tools/pqsplit will work these dates out for you, saving you a tiny bit of time and calculations... and of course it will give you an idea in advance, how many PQs your region will need. I expect running these PQs will take you about 3 -4 days depending on cache saturation.

[+on4bam]

16 minutes ago, mellers said:

I was just about to recommend GSAK. https://www.gsak.net/index.php

You can use it to "get" geocaches via the API. You can specify a circle or rectangle area... or choose a region (within which you want the caches to originate) and you can get up to 6000 caches in one extraction. That particular command isn't something I've used but it may be that the 6000 limit is also per day (as it is when you want to refresh cache data, which I do a lot).

 

 

 

Make that 16000 per day (new API), 6000 is the old but still functioning API.

 

[+searcherdog]

We have around 3500 in our Cumbria file and around 16500 in Cumbria/Lancashire/Manchester/Merseyside.

We used a combination of PQs, GSAK and Project GC.

 

[+Pacar]

1 minute ago, on4bam said:

 

Make that 16000 per day (new API), 6000 is the old but still functioning API.

 

Do I need to update GSAK to increase the download limits, or do I have to wait until the GSAK author updates the software, as this is probably going to be the easiest way to achieve what I'm trying to do, albeit, it's not a pocket query

 

[+on4bam]

The most recent versions of GSAK have the new API by default. Newest is 8.7.1.125 (go to tools > check for newer version ...)

Also go to Tools > Options  and then the "advanced " tab and make sure you check Version check and "also check for patches".

 

[+Pacar]

1 hour ago, on4bam said:

The most recent versions of GSAK have the new API by default. Newest is 8.7.1.125 (go to tools > check for newer version ...)

Also go to Tools > Options  and then the "advanced " tab and make sure you check Version check and "also check for patches".

 

Cheers for that, that should do nicely, Thank you