Jump to content

Pocket Query of Every Cache Within a Town


LittleSapphire2

Recommended Posts

Forgive me if this has been asked before, I tried looking through old forum posts and didn't find quite what I was looking for.

 

I'm interested in finding every cache in my hometown. From the MA 351 Challenge calculator website I learned that there are 40 active caches. I could manually go to the page for each one and add it to a list, but that seems like a ton of unnecessary work and if I want to do the same thing for other towns it will get even more tedious. If I use the search feature on the map and enter the name of my town, my only option is to search for caches within a radius of the town center. Obviously because towns aren't perfect circles, this leads to a couple caches that actually fall within the neighboring towns, and then a couple in my town that are missed because they are just a little farther away from the town center. I am not experienced with pocket queries but I tried to make one by inputting a total of 40 caches and setting the origin to my town's postal code. I still ended up with the same issue. Instead of looking for only the caches within the town limits, it just found the 40 that were closest to the town center, regardless of whether they were actually in a different town.

 

Is there a way to search for caches that are ONLY within a certain zip code/town, as opposed to in a radius from the town center? I thought this would be a simple thing to do but I'm having more difficulty than I expected.

Link to comment

I do not believe so. That would require each cache to have the zip code included as part of its data, which they don't.

I'm no expert, but I think your options are to add them individually as you mentioned, or do the radius thing, make it into a static list, and remove/add individual caches from that list.

Link to comment
13 hours ago, LittleSapphire2 said:

Is there a way to search for caches that are ONLY within a certain zip code/town, as opposed to in a radius from the town center? I thought this would be a simple thing to do but I'm having more difficulty than I expected.

 

Not sure if it is bulletproof, but on Filters try to write the city name and make sure you set the km (or mileage) radius to zero. I got different results.

Link to comment
On 3/21/2022 at 8:59 AM, TriciaG said:

That would require each cache to have the zip code included as part of its data, which they don't.

 

I don't know what postal codes are like in the UK but here in the USA there is limited correlation between postal (ZIP) codes and municipal limits.

 

For example, the zip code where I work includes all of two municipalities, part of a third, and some adjacent unincorporated areas. The code even spills over into part of the adjacent county.

 

Even if you can search by city/town name, some municipalities don't have nice neat square or circular contiguous boundaries. The town I live in has several neighborhoods and a park that are technically not part of town. In the next county there are several communities in excess of 10,000 residents that are unincorporated. Some of those lack clear geographic borders to delineate where they end, in the absence of formal municipal boundaries. 

 

Edited by JL_HSTRE
Link to comment

Pick a point in the physical center of town.  Pick a second point that would be on the longest distance cache from the first and note the distance from the first point.  Create a PQ from the first point for the distance to the second for the number of caches (40) or more.  Exclude any caches you want to ie: those you own.  Run the PQ

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...