variablestring Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 I want to be able to push all current geocaches to my PDA so that if im travelling someplace and I find I have some spare time, I can boot up the PDA and see whats nearest to me - however I cant do this because I need to search the website beforehand for a specific area and then download them a few at a time Is there any possible way to get this as 1 file for say the whole of the UK? Im aware that it will soon become obselete, however its more of a problem that when im in a new area I dont know where there might be a cache Link to comment
+Kryten Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 If you become a premium member you have access to "pocket queries" which can return up to 500 caches based on your own search criteria. By running 5 queries per day you can eventually acquire a database of all of the caches in the UK but it will take over a month, isn't worth the effort and will never be up to date. Become a premium memebr, and use a few pocket queres to search the areas you are most likely to visit. Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 22, 2008 Author Share Posted October 22, 2008 yea id read up on those, however as you pointed out its not really practicle Whats the site's views on automated data miners? Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 yea id read up on those, however as you pointed out its not really practicle Whats the site's views on automated data miners? Read the TOU - forbidden. http://www.geocaching.com/about/termsofuse.aspx Really - using Pocket Queries and caches along a route functions can be used to quickly grab the local caches - all you really need to have is some way to connect to the internet. Either that or plan ahead and have the area data before you get there. Lots of us do it that way. Link to comment
jholly Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 yea id read up on those, however as you pointed out its not really practicle Whats the site's views on automated data miners? Probably should read the TOU before you fire off one of those. They have a very dim view of such activities. Get your self a iPhone and the app for geocaching. Jim Link to comment
+Corey Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Or look at Trimble's Geocache Navigator. Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 I dont have any sort of wireless capabilities out in the field and im not about to start paying for what is currently an expensive telecom service. If i want to know where all the speed cameras in the uk are, I download them(small payment) I dont just download the cameras on the route im going, that would be ridiculous because I could branch off my route. In the same way I dont see why the uk geocache sitres arent available for download? Ive been to so many places lately and thought I bet theres a cache there, but i wont know untill i get in front of a computer by which stage its too late. I really do think it hinders this activity Link to comment
+ZSandmann Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 We all do it and it works just fine. Even on a short notice trip I still have some inkling of where I'm going. If you are a premium member it is a matter of seconds to search by zipcode, city, road, etc and spit out five 500 caches pocket queries. Per day. So you can gain access to 2500 caches every day, I can't imagine the person who would need more than that. However, if you aren't interested in paying $30 a year for this service I can't help you. All I know is that Groundspeak has repeatedly shut down outside attempts to mine their databases, and I certainly undersatand why. Cache listings are their income, their source of revenue, after all Groundspeak is a buisness. You couldn't walk into a grocery store and cart out all the cereal without someone getting upset. Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) for starters calm down... I didnt say I didnt want to pay, infact if you took the time to read my post I mentioned paying for services. However say I want to visit manchester uk one day, I do a search of anything within 15 miles of manchester, result 1192 - if my pockey query is set up for this, how does it do the cut off of 500 - which by the way is a fact completely omitted from the screen which describes pocket queries (https://www.geocaching.com/pocket/) how do I obtain all the 1192 caches within a perfectly reasonable distance of 15 miles of manchester using pocket queries? if you can show me how I would do that using a premium account then that would be perfect for me Edited October 23, 2008 by netmgr Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 If I did it correctly, there is about 34,000 caches in the UK and you have found 6. I don't think there is a GPS that will hold 34,000 waypoints and I doubt you would want to process 34,000 waypoints in a PDA. In fact, even GSAK would be cumbersome dealing with that many caches. BUT, if you want to do it, you can. Simply create a bunch of sock puppet accounts, acquire a Premium Membership for each of them and generate a series of Pocket Queries that cover the entire UK. I suggest you do it based on date placed to avoid overlap. I suspect that by the time you process all the data into your PDA and/or GPS, it will be dark. But night caching can be fun too. Link to comment
Keystone Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Try setting up two pocket queries separated by date, and screening out 192 caches you're not likely to search for -- terrain 5 caches, disabled caches, etc. Or, set up three queries and get all 1192 caches. Happy hunting. Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 for starters calm down... I didnt say I didnt want to pay, infact if you took the time to read my post I mentioned paying for services. However say I want to visit manchester uk one day, I do a search of anything within 15 miles of manchester, result 1192 - if my pockey query is set up for this, how does it do the cut off of 500 - which by the way is a fact completely omitted from the screen which describes pocket queries (https://www.geocaching.com/pocket/) how do I obtain all the 1192 caches within a perfectly reasonable distance of 15 miles of manchester using pocket queries? if you can show me how I would do that using a premium account then that would be perfect for me Use the geographic centre on Manchester as your point of reference. Do a couple of PQ's based on Date Placed and perimeter distance. It will take you 3 PQ's to get all 1192. Will take a bit of tinkering with date ranges to optimize but you can do that without submitting the PQ's. Just view results on line first. Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 Try setting up two pocket queries separated by date, and screening out 192 caches you're not likely to search for -- terrain 5 caches, disabled caches, etc. Or, set up three queries and get all 1192 caches. Happy hunting. can you clarify how this 500 cut off works as it gives no detail whatsoever on the site. if i submit a query that gives a result of 1192, what do I get back? the first 500? how would i then get the rest? Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 If I did it correctly, there is about 34,000 caches in the UK and you have found 6. only found 6 because I have no idea where they are when i visit someplace, i dont travel x amount of miles just to look for a cache, i travel for other reasons and when i am there i dont have the ability to search the website. I don't think there is a GPS that will hold 34,000 waypoints and I doubt you would want to process 34,000 waypoints in a PDA. In fact, even GSAK would be cumbersome dealing with that many caches. this is not a problem at all for a PDA it only shows what is local to you at any one time, which is ideal for me. I suspect that by the time you process all the data into your PDA and/or GPS, it will be dark. But night caching can be fun too. it takes about 20 seconds to copy a POI file to a PDA Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Try setting up two pocket queries separated by date, and screening out 192 caches you're not likely to search for -- terrain 5 caches, disabled caches, etc. Or, set up three queries and get all 1192 caches. Happy hunting. can you clarify how this 500 cut off works as it gives no detail whatsoever on the site. if i submit a query that gives a result of 1192, what do I get back? the first 500? how would i then get the rest? You will get the 500 closest to the latitude/longitude you selected AND match the criteria you specified. For example, if there are 1192 traditionals in the area, you would get the 500 closest to the lat/long. I doubt you could load and process 34,000 caches into a PDA in 20 seconds. But go for it. Link to comment
+ZSandmann Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 for starters calm down... I didnt say I didnt want to pay, infact if you took the time to read my post I mentioned paying for services. However say I want to visit manchester uk one day, I do a search of anything within 15 miles of manchester, result 1192 - if my pockey query is set up for this, how does it do the cut off of 500 - which by the way is a fact completely omitted from the screen which describes pocket queries (https://www.geocaching.com/pocket/) how do I obtain all the 1192 caches within a perfectly reasonable distance of 15 miles of manchester using pocket queries? if you can show me how I would do that using a premium account then that would be perfect for me I wasn't worked up, if it seemed so, I am sorry for that, textual emotions are hard to convey. I read your post that you did not want to pay for this utility, if that is incorrect, again I am sorry. As the others said there are no hard and fast rules for how the Pocket quesries run because it depends on your filter criteria. Basically you have to give it a central point; lat/long, a particular cache, a zip code, etc. The query chooses up to (it can be less) 500 caches from that point in a circular search pattern. You can also do a query along a route which allows you to search for caches along a road or other line with a certain radius from that path. To get all 1100+ caches from the point you suggested you could use the date the caches were placed as a filter, breaking them into three 500 cache batches, it takes a little playing but is fairly quick to implement. Link to comment
+Okiebryan Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Using date placed, I get every cache in Oklahoma once a week. This takes 9 PQs. "Oklahoma 1" is every cache in Oklahoma (with no center point or distance set) placed between 1/1/2000 and 6/1/2004. "Oklahoma 2 is between 6/2/2004 and 3/1/2005... and so on. I tweaked the dates until each PQ brought in just below 500 caches. I then have GSAK export a GPS file of all 4300 some odd caches and I send this GPX to GPX spinner and plucker, after which I sync the plucker file to my PDA. I now have all caches in Oklahoma in my PDA. Next, I tell GSAK to filter all unavalable or archived caches, and I delete all of those. Same thing for last 2 DNFs. Now I have a db of 3900 something caches that I am likely to be able to find. When I travel, I pick a center point, filter distance down to <1000 caches, and shoot them into the GPS. When I return home, or visit another area, just load a different 1000 caches into the GPS. Oh, yeah, using "get data via email" automates the process of getting the PQs into GSAK. Well worth the effort to set that up. Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 I basically do the same thing. But 9 queries only takes me to a radius of 150 km from Toronto. But that is good enough for my purposes. The other plus to this is that I have a fairly accurate list in case PQ's don't show up as happened a couple weeks ago. Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 ok so my task is entirely doable, albeit it via a completely ridiculous series of 'pocket queries' all set to varying criteria in order to produce 500 or less per search and have the results sent to my inbox at some point in the future Its hardly cutting edge technology here is it? or spur of the moment The UK isnt a big place in the grand scheme of things, you can drive from one end to the other in a day - I think the list should be available for download for premium members - I can find myself in lots of places in the uk over the course of a week with work and i cant geocache because I dont know where they are Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 It has worked pretty well for 99% of us for the last seven years. Once you set up your PQ's the rest is pretty simple. Get yourself a copy of GSAK and it will work wonders for you. Link to comment
+FireRef Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 It all comes from GC.com trying to protect the lists that they generate from all of us by us submitting our caches and having them publish them on the list. They "own" the list (although they may have legal support, and agreements from people who choose to list caches on their site, I disagree with this logic - we own the caches, and should be allowed to have people do whatever we want with that info), and make it available only in small chunks. They have always disliked the idea of offline lists, and made that very clear. They want us going to the website every time we think about looking for a cache, even though that isn't always practical or cost-effective. It has been proposed before to have large PQ's generated by state in the US, or for your country or others. They poo-poo that idea... Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 ok so my task is entirely doable, albeit it via a completely ridiculous series of 'pocket queries' all set to varying criteria in order to produce 500 or less per search and have the results sent to my inbox at some point in the future Rediculous, NO United Kingdom 11 provinces/states 215 East Midlands 219 East of England 220 London 217 North Wales 212 Northeast England 213 Northwest England 210 Scotland North 211 Scotland South 221 South of England 218 South Wales 223 Southeast of England 222 Southwest of England 216 West Midlands 214 Yorkshire and Humber Since each of those is less that 500 caches, then you can do it with 11 PQ's, and since I think you can control click multiple states then you can do it in even less queries. Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) Rediculous, NO United Kingdom 11 provinces/states 215 East Midlands 219 East of England 220 London 217 North Wales 212 Northeast England 213 Northwest England 210 Scotland North 211 Scotland South 221 South of England 218 South Wales 223 Southeast of England 222 Southwest of England 216 West Midlands 214 Yorkshire and Humber Since each of those is less that 500 caches, then you can do it with 11 PQ's, and since I think you can control click multiple states then you can do it in even less queries. i dont know where you obtained that list from but it in no way refences every County (we dont have states) its nothing like there are 34010 caches in the united kingdom and even if you could come up with some sort of silly query that grouped them into 500(impossible), thats still 68 pocket queries Please do your homework before jumping on the sheep bandwagon Edited October 23, 2008 by netmgr Link to comment
+ZSandmann Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Ah perfect solution trainlove, those numbers seem very controllable. Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 Ah perfect solution trainlove, those numbers seem very controllable. are you a sheep too, following the croud? those numbers he posted are fiction Link to comment
+ZSandmann Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Now you are just being nasty. We are users like you, we are trying to help you reach a solution to your unique situation. I'm divesting myself from this conversation now before I raise my blood pressure. Link to comment
+mrcanoehead224 Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 ok so my task is entirely doable, albeit it via a completely ridiculous series of 'pocket queries' all set to varying criteria in order to produce 500 or less per search and have the results sent to my inbox at some point in the future 210 Scotland North 211 Scotland South Since each of those is less that 500 caches, then you can do it with 11 PQ's, and since I think you can control click multiple states then you can do it in even less queries. I count 14 counties. That's 7 pocket queuries as none are over 250 caches. Over a period of two days, that would give you all the caches you're looking for. If they are set up to run each week (just a check mark in the setup) then you can have all the info sent to you automatically on a weekly basis, that way, you're almost always up to date. I like trainlove's breakdown. 421 in Scotland? I know what I'm doing next time I'm there! Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) I count 14 counties. That's 7 pocket queuries as none are over 250 caches. Over a period of two days, that would give you all the caches you're looking for. If they are set up to run each week (just a check mark in the setup) then you can have all the info sent to you automatically on a weekly basis, that way, you're almost always up to date. I like trainlove's breakdown. 421 in Scotland? I know what I'm doing next time I'm there! no look, the list on gc.com is not a list of counties, it is some sort of madeup nonesense, its basically a geographical list, which doesnt accurately produce results from those actual areas to prove a point, do a search uk wide and you get 34010 caches, do a search on each of the madeup items on the gc.com drop down list then add them together, it comes to nothing like the UK total these are the uk counties Avon Bedfordshire Berkshire Borders Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Central Cheshire Cleveland Clwyd Cornwall County Antrim County Armagh County Down County Fermanagh County Londonderry County Tyrone Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset Dumfries and Galloway Durham Dyfed East Sussex Essex Fife Gloucestershire Grampian Greater Manchester Gwent Gwynedd County Hampshire Herefordshire Hertfordshire Highlands and Islands Humberside Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire Lothian Merseyside Mid Glamorgan Norfolk North Yorkshire Northamptonshire Northumberland Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Powys Rutland Shropshire Somerset South Glamorgan South Yorkshire Staffordshire Strathclyde Suffolk Surrey Tayside Tyne and Wear Warwickshire West Glamorgan West Midlands West Sussex West Yorkshire Wiltshire Worcestershire Edited October 23, 2008 by netmgr Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) Geocaching.com's search page has the ability to search for caches by country. I'm assuming that it's the same for PQ.s There are 253+2 countries it knows about. Of those, there are 15 with multiple states/provinces. There are 243+1 known states/provinces. If you have an issue with the list I presented for your area, then take that up with geocaching.com. There is a long running topic about adding various states and counties to their database. Country c code s code State/Province USA 2 60 Alabama 2 Alaska 3 Arizona 4 Arkansas 5 California 6 Colorado 7 Connecticut 9 Delaware 8 District of Columbia 10 Florida 11 Georgia 12 Hawaii 13 Idaho 14 Illinois 15 Indiana 16 Iowa 17 Kansas 18 Kentucky 19 Louisiana 20 Maine 21 Maryland 22 Massachusetts 23 Michigan 24 Minnesota 25 Mississippi 26 Missouri 27 Montana 28 Nebraska 29 Nevada 30 New Hampshire 31 New Jersey 32 New Mexico 33 New York 34 North Carolina 35 North Dakota 36 Ohio 37 Oklahoma 38 Oregon 39 Pennsylvania 40 Rhode Island 41 South Carolina 42 South Dakota 43 Tennessee 44 Texas 45 Utah 46 Vermont 47 Virginia 48 Washington 49 West Virginia 50 Wisconsin 51 Wyoming Afghanistan 12 Aland Islands 272 Albania 244 Algeria 14 American Samoa 245 Andorra 16 Angola 17 Anguilla 246 Antarctica 18 Antigua and Barbuda 13 Argentina 19 Armenia 15 Aruba 20 Australia 3 59 Australian Capital Territory (australia) 52 New South Wales (australia) 58 Northern Territory (australia) 54 Queensland (australia) 55 South Australia (australia) 57 Tasmania (australia) 53 Victoria 56 Western Australia (australia) Austria 227 Azerbaijan 21 Bahamas 23 Bahrain 29 Bangladesh 24 Barbados 25 Belarus 40 Belgium 4 87 Antwerpen 91 Brabant wallon 93 Brussels 88 Hainaut 80 Liège 89 Limburg 90 Luxembourg 81 Namur 76 Oost-Vlaanderen 78 Vlaams-Brabant 92 West-Vlaanderen Belize 31 Benin 26 Bermuda 27 Bhutan 30 Bolivia 32 Bonaire 275 Bosnia and Herzegovina 234 Botswana 33 Bouvet Island 247 Brazil 34 162 Acre 163 Alagoas 164 Amapá 165 Amazonas 166 Bahia 167 Ceará 168 Distrito Federal 169 Espírito Santo 170 Goiás 171 Maranhão 172 Mato Grosso 173 Mato Grosso do Sul 174 Minas Gerais 175 Pará 176 Paraíba 177 Paraná 178 Pernambuco 179 Piauí 180 Rio de Janeiro 181 Rio Grande do Norte 182 Rio Grande do Sul 183 Rondônia 184 Roraima 185 Santa Catarina 186 São Paulo 187 Sergipe 188 Tocantins British Indian Ocean Territories 248 British Virgin Islands 39 Brunei 36 Bulgaria 37 Burkina Faso 216 Burundi 35 Burxina 28 Cambodia 42 Cameroon 43 Canada 5 63 Alberta (canada) 64 British Columbia (canada) 65 Manitoba (canada) 66 New Brunswick (canada) 67 Newfoundland and Labrador (canada) 72 Northwest Territories (canada) 68 Nova Scotia (canada) 73 Nunavut (canada) 69 Ontario (canada) 70 Prince Edward Island (canada) 62 Quebec (canada) 71 Saskatchewan (canada) 74 Yukon Territory (canada) Cape Verde 239 Cayman Islands 44 Central African Republic 46 Chad 249 Chile 6 China 47 Christmas Island 250 Cocos (Keeling) Islands 251 Colombia 49 Comoros 50 Congo 51 Cook Islands 48 Costa Rica 52 Croatia 53 Cuba 238 Curacao 54 Cyprus 55 Czech Republic 56 Democratic Republic of the Congo 257 Denmark 57 Djibouti 58 Dominica 59 Dominican Republic 60 East Timor 252 Ecuador 61 Egypt 63 El Salvador 64 Equatorial Guinea 62 Eritrea 65 Estonia 66 Ethiopia 67 Falkland Islands 69 Faroe Islands 68 Fiji 71 Finland 72 France 73 French Guiana 70 French Polynesia 74 French Southern Territories 253 Gabon 75 Gambia 76 Georgia 78 Germany 79 135 Baden-Württemberg 136 Bayern 137 Berlin 138 Brandenburg 139 Bremen 140 Hamburg 150 Hessen 141 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 142 Niedersachsen 143 Nordrhein-Westfalen 144 Rheinland-Pfalz 145 Saarland 146 Sachsen 147 Sachsen-Anhalt 148 Schleswig-Holstein 149 Thüringen Ghana 254 Gibraltar 80 Greece 82 Greenland 83 Grenada 81 Guadeloupe 77 Guam 229 Guatemala 84 Guernsey 86 Guinea 255 Guinea-Bissau 85 Guyana 87 Haiti 89 Heard Island And Mcdonald Islands 256 Honduras 90 Hong Kong 91 Hungary 92 Iceland 93 India 94 Indonesia 95 Iran 96 Iraq 97 Ireland 7 227 Connacht 226 Dublin 228 Leinster 225 Munster 224 Ulster Isle of Man 243 Israel 98 Italy 99 189 Abruzzo 190 Basilicata 192 Calabria 193 Campania 194 Emilia–Romagna 195 Friuli–Venezia Giulia 196 Lazio 197 Liguria 198 Lombardia 199 Marche 200 Molise 201 Piemonte 202 Puglia 203 Sardegna 204 Sicilia 205 Toscana 206 Trentino–Alto Adige 207 Umbria 208 Valle d'Aosta 209 Veneto Ivory Coast 100 Jamaica 101 Japan 104 Jersey 102 Jordan 103 Kazakhstan 106 Kenya 107 Kiribati 109 Kuwait 241 Kyrgyzstan 108 Laos 110 Latvia 111 Lebanon 113 Lesotho 114 Liberia 115 Libya 112 Liechtenstein 116 Lithuania 117 Luxembourg 8 Macau 258 Macedonia 125 Madagascar 119 Malawi 129 Malaysia 121 Maldives 124 Mali 127 Malta 128 Marshall Islands 240 Martinique 122 Mauritania 123 Mauritius 134 Mayotte 259 Mexico 228 Micronesia 242 Moldovia 237 Monaco 130 Mongolia 131 Montenegro 274 Montserrat 135 Morocco 132 Mozambique 133 Myanmar 136 Namibia 137 Nauru 138 Nepal 140 Netherlands 141 Netherlands Antilles 148 Nevis and St Kitts 142 New Caledonia 41 New Zealand 9 82 North Island 86 South Island Nicaragua 144 Niger 143 Nigeria 145 Niue 149 Norfolk Island 260 Northern Mariana Islands 236 Norway 147 240 Akershus 247 Aust-Agder 244 Buskerud 257 Finnmark 242 Hedmark 250 Hordaland 252 Møre og Romsdal 254 Nord-Trøndelag 255 Nordland 243 Oppland 241 Oslo 239 Østfold 249 Rogaland 251 Sogn og Fjordane 253 Sør-Trøndelag 245 Telemark 256 Troms 248 Vest-Agder 246 Vestfold Oman 150 Pakistan 151 Palau 261 Panama 152 Papua New Guinea 156 Paraguay 262 People Den Rep Yemen 157 Peru 153 Philippines 154 Pitcairn Islands 155 Poland 158 Portugal 159 113 Arquipélago da Madeira 114 Arquipélago dos Açores 95 Aveiro 96 Beja 97 Braga 98 Bragança 99 Castelo Branco 100 Coimbra 101 Évora 102 Faro 103 Guarda 104 Leiria 105 Lisboa 106 Portalegre 107 Porto 108 Santarém 109 Setúbal 110 Viana do Castelo 112 Vila Real 111 Viseu Puerto Rico 226 Qatar 160 Reunion 161 Romania 162 Russia 163 Rwanda 164 Saint Helena 171 Saint Kitts and Nevis 264 Saint Lucia 173 Samoa 217 San Marino 183 Sao Tome and Principe 176 Saudi Arabia 166 Senegal 167 Serbia and Montenegro 222 Seychelles 168 Sierra Leone 178 Singapore 179 Slovakia 182 Slovenia 181 Solomon Islands 184 Somalia 185 South Africa 165 153 Eastern Cape 160 Free State 159 Gauteng 157 Kwazulu Natal 158 Limpopo 155 Mpumalanga 156 North West 154 Northern Cape 152 Western Cape South Georgia and Sandwich Islands 267 South Korea 180 Spain 186 116 Andalucía 119 Aragón 130 Cantabria 115 Castilla y León 117 Castilla-La Mancha 121 Cataluña 133 Ceuta 127 Comunidad de Madrid 126 Comunidad Foral de Navarra 123 Comunidad Valenciana 120 Extremadura 122 Galicia 132 Islas Baleares 128 Islas Canarias 131 La Rioja 134 Melilla 129 País Vasco 125 Principado de Asturias 124 Región de Murcia Sri Lanka 187 St Barthelemy 169 St Eustatius 170 St Kitts 172 St Marten 174 St Pierre Miquelon 175 St Vince Grenadines 177 Sudan 188 Suriname 189 Svalbard and Jan Mayen 268 Swaziland 190 Sweden 10 Switzerland 192 234 Espace Mittelland (BE/SO) 229 Graubuenden (GR) 236 Jura (JU/NE) 232 Nordwestschweiz (AG/BL/BS) 230 Ostschweiz (SG/SH/TG/AI/AR/GL) 231 Region Zuerich (ZH) 235 Suisse romande (GE/VD/FR) 238 Tessin (TI) 237 Wallis (VS) 233 Zentralschweiz (ZG/SZ/LU/UR/OW/NW) Syria 193 Taiwan 194 Tajikistan 195 Tanzania 196 Thailand 198 Togo 200 Tokelau 269 Tonga 201 Trinidad and Tobago 202 Tunisia 203 Turkey 204 Turkmenistan 199 Turks and Caicos Islands 197 Tuvalu 205 Uganda 208 Ukraine 207 United Arab Emirates 206 United Kingdom 11 215 East Midlands 219 East of England 220 London 217 North Wales 212 Northeast England 213 Northwest England 210 Scotland North 211 Scotland South 221 South of England 218 South Wales 223 Southeast of England 222 Southwest of England 216 West Midlands 214 Yorkshire and Humber Unknown 1 Uruguay 210 US Minor Outlying Islands 270 US Virgin Islands 235 Uzbekistan 211 Vanuatu 212 Vatican City State 213 Venezuela 214 Vietnam 215 Wallis And Futuna Islands 218 Western Sahara 271 Yemen 220 Zaire 223 Zambia 224 Zimbabwe 225 North Korea unlisted 146 catch-all state unlisted 1 Edited October 23, 2008 by trainlove Link to comment
+mrcanoehead224 Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Ah perfect solution trainlove, those numbers seem very controllable. are you a sheep too, following the croud? those numbers he posted are fiction um, off topic but, why do so many many threads seem to deteriorate so quickly? Aren't we all here to try to help each other out? back to topic, now, sorry I didn't verify the cache counts but I think the general idea is out there. There is also the 'along route' option. I haven't tried it myself but if you know the general direction you will be heading, I think you can specify within a certain distance of your intended path. It involves creating a kml file for google earth but as I think we've already determined, there is no magic bullet for getting all we want the way we want. good day all! Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 to prove a point, do a search uk wide and you get 34010 caches, do a search on each of the madeup items on the gc.com drop down list then add them together, it comes to nothing like the UK total Tell me how to do a UK wide search and I'll be able to improve my data for my experiments in http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=202425 and http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=203936 P.S. The cache numbers I presented are about 2 months old, so yes they are a bit out of date, but not rediculously so. Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) Geocaching.com's search page has the ability to search for caches by country. I'm assuming that it's the same for PQ.s There are 253+2 countries it knows about. Of those, there are 15 with multiple states/provinces. There are 243+1 known states/provinces. If you have an issue with the list I presented for your area, then take that up with geocaching.com. There is a long running topic about adding various states and counties to their database. the list on geocaching.com for the UK are not counties, I have already pointed out what they should be. Its very clear that the list they do have is useless, because as you pointed pointed out, there are only 14 in the list, and when you do an individual search, the total does not anywhere near equal the total you would get if you just did one search on united kingdom It is not my responsibility to push for it fixing, nor is it a convern to me as I never use it. I am simply responding to you and indicating that the method you suggested as being the answer to my question(as though I might have accidently not known how to use a search facility) does not work. Edited October 23, 2008 by netmgr Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 If you do an Advanced Search and specify country (UK) and Search All, there is 34,011 caches in the U.K. The O.P. has been given a solution to his requirement by a number of cachers. He just doesn't like what he considers to be a cumbersome approach. Perhaps he is correct, but that is the way it is. As mentioned, Groundspeak owns the database and complete control over how users can access it. He wants to have all 34,011 caches in his PDA and he can do that as long as he acquires a Premium Membership (or several) and creates the appropriate PQ's. It will take awhile but once in place should be quite manageable. Link to comment
+mrcanoehead224 Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) seems those numbers are just a reference number GC uses to identify the areas in the DB. no indication of how many caches actually exist there. Edited October 23, 2008 by mrcanoehead224 Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 seems those numbers are just a reference number GC uses to identify the areas in the DB. no indication of how many caches actually exist there. OOPS, I cut and pasted from the wrong columns of my spreadsheet. This is more like it, and still does not add up to the numbers bandied about for 'whole UK wide' search, however that's done. United Kingdom 11 215 East Midlands 444 219 East of England 454 220 London 357 217 North Wales 253 212 Northeast England 175 213 Northwest England 843 210 Scotland North 479 211 Scotland South 393 221 South of England 1022 218 South Wales 295 223 Southeast of England 852 222 Southwest of England 810 216 West Midlands 703 214 Yorkshire and Humber 659 Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 OOPS, I cut and pasted from the wrong columns of my spreadsheet. This is more like it, and still does not add up to the numbers bandied about for 'whole UK wide' search, however that's done. thats because non of those are counties, just a general geographic location with no specific start or cut off Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 seems those numbers are just a reference number GC uses to identify the areas in the DB. no indication of how many caches actually exist there. OOPS, I cut and pasted from the wrong columns of my spreadsheet. This is more like it, and still does not add up to the numbers bandied about for 'whole UK wide' search, however that's done. "That" is done very easily. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx and on the second pulldown, select "By State/Country", select United Kingdom and leave the next pulldown as "Select All". The result will show 34,011 caches in the U.K. Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 "That" is done very easily. -Select All- That's so simple, but it simply doesn't seem to work all the time. For the UK it does, for Australia there is no -Select All-, and it gives one Province. For Canada there is a -Select All- but it only gives results for the first province Alberta. Have not tried any other country except for the USA which has no -Select All- and you have to smartly do something in order to even get it in the list of countries. Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 "That" is done very easily. -Select All- That's so simple, but it simply doesn't seem to work all the time. For the UK it does, for Australia there is no -Select All-, and it gives one Province. For Canada there is a -Select All- but it only gives results for the first province Alberta. Have not tried any other country except for the USA which has no -Select All- and you have to smartly do something in order to even get it in the list of countries. We can only hope that the OP does not upgrade his requirement to include the rest of the British Commonwealth. Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 British Commonwealth. British Empire Link to comment
+tozainamboku Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) It always seems amusing to me when a new geocacher with a handful of finds comes on the forum to insist that because of his/her special circumstance he requires to have access to an offline database of all the caches in his country or state. Usually, he will claim that he often travels about the country and doesn't know in advance where he will be and generally does have access to the Internet while travelling. Someone with experience will point out how with a premium membership you can get up to 2500 caches per day (17,500 per week) using pocket queries. They will discuss various strategies on how to structure pocket queries to use them efficiently. Yet the newbie will complain that this is ridiculous, and certainly not as efficient as downloading the whole state or country. Other people will point out the ability to use the Trimble GeocacheNavigator application, the new Groundspeak iPhone app, or just wap.geocaching.com to access the latest online data from their cell phone. Yet the newbie will complain that they don't want to pay for an expensive cell phone plan or that they don't have cell coverage in many places they may be. 99% of geocachers (probably a conservative estimate) are quite happy using the existing capabilities to geocache. Most would never use the whole county and state file, even if available. For them it is far more efficient to pocket queries for the specific area they will be caching in. They can get a pocket query of caches along a route for each of several routes that they may be travelling on. If they truly are free spirits who don't know in advance where they will be, they accept the cost of the cell phone solution. And if they know they are going to be in an area without cell coverage to pre-load a pocket query for the that area or look up caches on the phone while they still have cell coverage and save the data locally on the phone. Most people also realize they are not going to find every cache. If they miss a cache in a area because they didn't have the "right" pocket query it isn't the end of the world. They just keep driving through till they get to wherever the next cache that have is. Having an offline database of all the caches doesn't guarantee you will have every cache anyhow. You won't see that brand new cache that got published after your last download. And you won't know about caches that went missing and are now disabled or archived. If you really want to know if there are any caches nearby that you can find you have to use one of the online solutions. I won't post the link to my take on why I think Geocaching.com has repeatedly stated that they aren't going to produce these files of all the caches in a state or a country even for a fee. You can find the link in my profile. Complaining that no one is taking your suggestion seriously isn't going to help much. They are trying to help you because what you are asking for isn't going to happen. (I would say "is never going to happen," but Groundspeak has proven me wrong before - so there is a chance that someday they will offer what you are asking for. Just don't look for it soon). BTW - the UK geocaching community lobbied for years on getting the counties added to the caches in the UK. The problem was there was no agreement on what the counties were. The administrative borders seem to have changed over time and some people want to use the traditional borders while others want the modern borders (I suspect that there may also be some difference in the names and number of counties). UK counties are relatively small compared to states in the US and Australia or provinces in Canada. In addition, some counties were relatively cache dense while others had few caches. So it looked like some kind of regional division would work better that the counties but more that just splitting up England, Scotland, and Wales. The various local groups working with the UK reviewers came up with the 14 regions which seemed like a good compromise. I believe that because these regions were added later, older caches are not assigned to a region unless the cache owner goes back and edits this information. So that might account for the discrepancy in the numbers of caches. Edited October 23, 2008 by tozainamboku Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 And of course, the most complete, always up to date, available at all times (if you have a Wi-Fi Laptop or PDA and are near an Access Point, or a Cell Phone or Laptop with CDMA) database is right there at geocaching.com. If he really wants to do his rediculous, daily?, database update, then he can buy as many Premium Memberships as necessary, I think the forum post that tozainamboku hints at also says that. Link to comment
+Cornix Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 This is more like it, and still does not add up to the numbers bandied about for 'whole UK wide' search, however that's done. That's because these 14 "regions" were only introduced by Grundspeak last year. Since then you have to specify a region if you want to report a new cache. You can also edit your old listings and add a region if you like but it's not mandatory. So the "missing numbers" in UK are older caches without specified region. Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) That's because these 14 "regions" were only introduced by Grundspeak last year. Since then you have to specify a region if you want to report a new cache. Of course. And this is one good reason/justification for geocaching.com to NOT implement ANY new state/province information into their database, unless they also add on an 'Unspecified' category to all countries that have multiple states, and force any/all caches with no sub-information listed, to be listed as Unspecified. And of course they MUST allow a search on the state/province called Unspecified in any of the 15 countries that have sub-states in them (today). And while they are at it, any search page then should have distance and direction shown (even though they say that all non location based searches will not have that), and those distances should be sortable based on your stored location. I don't think any of this will get implemented. Edited October 23, 2008 by trainlove Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Its hardly cutting edge technology here is it? or spur of the moment I will in fact Not Un-Calm Up. For spur of the moment I repeat what I said in #42. If you are unwilling to pay for internet service with CDMA, then I suggest you Buy a POI database of libraries and go to any of those that have free internet access, whenever you find yourself somehow somewhere where you didn't expect to be. Or do as everyone here suggests, well in advance of any trip, and you will have however many millions of potentially archived caches on your PDA when the time comes for you to find them. It only takes a millisecond to load a million caches worth of information into a PDA using Plucker, LOL. I had not noticed until now that: 1. the OP was not a Premium Member, 2. and he has only been a cacher for 3 weeks, 3. and he has only found 6 caches, 4. and he has absolutely nothing else in his profile, 5. and he has only 11 forum posts (all right in this very thread). I detect a sock puppet account here. Red Alert. Especially since he's so adept at quotes as in his post #14, something I couldn't do for a long time. And his feigned confusion on the 500 limit of a PQ really had me going... Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 (edited) I had the same thought. Time will tell. He has been given a working solution to his problem. And he has been told that gc.com is NOT going to change to accommodate his request. There is not really anything more to add to this topic. I am just jealous that the U.K. has so many caches I can't find. Edited October 23, 2008 by Tequila Link to comment
variablestring Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 Look muppets, just because one is new to this forum does not mean one is wet behind the ears. There are many forums out there, should you choose to open your eyes and have a look, all working on silmilar principles as this forum. Realising now that you seem to only use one forum and struggled with quotes, I appreciate now why communicating with you is so tedious. I appreciate I am new, however surely it is at the introduction to a new process that one realises the pros and cons of the system, established users generally have a blinkered view. For those indicating that I am going on about the same thing, you are WRONG - read the transcript, a few sections in and I am happy with pocket queries if I could be told how they work, IE i will accept that I can't have the whole of the UK - however it seems that im also very limited with pocket queries even for much smaller sections of the UK because of the complexities of the query I would have to run, based on dates miles etc - the majority of this thread has been taken up by those suggesting that I do a county search. I have then repeated myself several times saying that that kind of search doesnt produce all UK caches as it seems to be flawed, and others have explained why that is Unless you actually have something useful to say, why do you partake in putting into words on a forum your rather weird views? For the record, I will not upgrade because pocket queries 'appear' from what I have been told to be almost useless and that the best couse of action would be to do a free search of caches in an area that I MIGHT be in - I will of course miss a substantial amount but will get some - which is just how I do things at the moment. Thanks for those that actually had somehting useful to say. Link to comment
+Tequila Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Who told you pocket queries are useless? Nothing could be further from the truth. You are certainly right that without PQ's you are going to miss a 'substantial' amount. So far you have missed 34,005. I would suggest you find a nearby cacher and perhaps they could show you how effective PQ's are. Better yet, attend a local caching event and have a real time discussion with cachers that have experience. Link to comment
+trainlove Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Boo hoo, My database of some 40,000 caches in the New England states and into New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania within a certain radius of parts of Massachusetts is way out of date, 1.5 years to be exact. Boo Hoo, this has had absolutely NO impact on my caching ability. Yoo hoo, I have found 600 caches in the last 6 months, some 30% of my 3.5 year caching stats have been found in the last 15% of my cachinig days. Gee Wiz, I didn't know that the UK was absolutely devoid of internet access almost anywhere you go. Whip it, I don't think that geocaching needs people like you, and I know thousands of cachers personally from the ~140 geocaching events I've been to. Yee Ha, All the geocachers I know are absolutely the best people in the world. I know of absolutely nobody who needs to be as up to date as you do, well some in the thread previously mentioned (who is you but inder a different name I'm guessing) want to be more up to date than groundspeak. Link to comment
Keystone Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 There have been enough personal attacks thrown back and forth that I've decided to close this thread. Some posters deserved warnings or suspensions, so rejoice and be happy that we're just stopping the public discussion. Feel free to insult each other via e-mail or private message, but do give this topic a rest here in the forums. Thank you. Link to comment
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