This topic contains 62 replies, has 16 voices, and was last updated by 
The Happy Hodag! 6 years, 4 months ago.
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Like many others on here, I probably only use a small percentage of GSAK’s full features. I use mine to filter out what type of geocaches I want to find. I use it to filter out geocaches that have a string of recent DNF’s. That’s just a small sample of what I use GSAK for. For a data geek like myself, GSAK is also great for getting specific data. For example, if you want to know how many geocaches that you found that was placed by a certain owner, GSAK can get that info for you. And that’s just the beginning. Trust me, Happy Hodag, you will LOVE it and will wonder how you lived without it once you get yourself familiar with the software. It is money well worth spent. Attend a local GSAK class that sometimes pop up and check it out.
I’m sure there are other things you absolutely need GSAK for, but filtering out cache types can be done before opening up GSAK. Eventually, I’ll figure out how to filter out caches with a string of DNF’s.
I still download pocket queries the old fashioned way, but GSAK is a good back up to that. I downloaded my pocket queries this morning this way, but somehow they didn’t show up on my GPS. Then I went to GSAK and that worked today. It’s important to me right now, because I’ll be going for my 2,000 milestone over the weekend.
-The Happy Hodag!
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
Okay, so about the corrected coordinates. I’ll still be posting those to the cache pages for multis and puzzles since that’s an option for those two types. I’ve found that GSAK is a nice supplement for the other cache types. There is the rare case where the coords are off considerably on a traditional and a previous finder will post something more accurate. With GSAK, I can take that accurate info and plug it in and away I go. There’s a new(ish) cache in Green Bay that I’ll try this on when I get the chance to get out there.
-The Happy Hodag!
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
Good point. I also use GSAK to put in corrected coordinates for letterboxes and when the original coordinates are a bit off and someone posted better ones… esp since I only load the last 7 logs and the better coordinates might be further back than that.
Lately, I’ve only been using GSAK instead of gc.com to plan my weekend and extended trips. I’m working on a couple of d/t challenges, and now that I have my databases built up, I can update the caches right in gsak. The map macro for me is the most useful for planning excursions, as the visual of a map is easier for me to plan, rather than a list. I get the notifications for new caches, and if they are the d/ts that I need, I just add them to my databases. It really makes it easy to focus on what I want to accomplish.
Something I played with in GSAK last week was “Get Geocaches”. I wanted to update an old PQ but knew there would have been Archived and new caches published since I ran it years ago.
Tried out the Get Geocaches under the Geocaching.com Access on the top bar. Instead of going to gc.com, finding a cache near where I wanted and then run my PQ off of that I clicked on the map that opened, clicked where I wanted the center of caches to be using the cords…BAM. 2800 caches.
Got much more than I wanted but it was perfect for the 1st time using it. I didn’t know where I was going to end up while in Indiana so I had many choices. I can probably improve on how I use this the next time it is ran but I was surprised at how well it worked.
Following the signals from space.
Something I played with in GSAK last week was “Get Geocaches”. I wanted to update an old PQ but knew there would have been Archived and new caches published since I ran it years ago. Tried out the Get Geocaches under the Geocaching.com Access on the top bar. Instead of going to gc.com, finding a cache near where I wanted and then run my PQ off of that I clicked on the map that opened, clicked where I wanted the center of caches to be using the cords…BAM. 2800 caches. Got much more than I wanted but it was perfect for the 1st time using it. I didn’t know where I was going to end up while in Indiana so I had many choices. I can probably improve on how I use this the next time it is ran but I was surprised at how well it worked.
You just helped me delete 11 pqs from gc.com for one of my challenges. Much easier doing right in GSAK. Thanks!!!!
Following the signals from space.
So my windows did a major update the other day, and last night I went on to create a new pq in case I travel out a little further. Went to save it to my downloads on my laptop, but when I went to load it into the new database in GSAK, it wasn’t showing up… grrr. But, messing around with it, found the “download pocket queries” under the geocaching.com access. Checked off the ones I needed and I was set! So much easier (and quicker!) than trying to find the pq on my laptop. I’m sure everyone else that uses gsak knew that option was there… I’m a slow learner, lol.
I also found that last yr and it super helpful. No more Download, unzip, save, upload to GPS. Just do what you did and it is there ready to download.
Following the signals from space.
Boy did Groundspeak get it right. I see they made an update where you can update the coords for every cache type, not just for multi’s and those pesky ?’s. Another use for GSAK out the window. Is there anything left that GSAK can do for me that the main website can’t?
-The Happy Hodag!
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
That’s great! You would think something like that would be easy for gc.com to do. Hopefully, they will keep working to make it user friendly for the pqs. I’m too much into using the databases on gsak and being able to reorganize the cache info for what I want to focus on along with developing specific databases for challenges to be able to give it up. It’s also nice on gsak to be able to create the databases someone wants prior to a long distance trip and to then be able to upload to the gps on the road without needing Wi-Fi.
You don’t need an internet connection to get onto GSAK? It seems that I’ve needed one whenever I’ve tried to open it up. If that’s the case, that’s another big turnoff for me.
-The Happy Hodag!
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
Prior to going on a trip, I would load/build several databases mainly because my gps only can store 2k. Once they are in GSAK, you don’t need internet to access them and upload them to your gps. There would be macros, like google maps that require internet to open, but the databases you put in stay there. You also wouldn’t be able to link GSAK to GC.com without internet to update the cache databases, but then again no internet, no gc.com anyways.
Here’s a fun little exercise I did on GSAK, creating a map, with cache titles, of Wisconsin’s oldest active caches. I don’t think there’s another way I could have easily done this without using GSAK.
I understand that GSAK has info on county borders, so creating a list of caches in each county certainly is much easier if that’s true. Great job on the maps as well.
-The Happy Hodag!
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
Anyone else here listen to the Pod Cacher Podcast? Well, they have someone on this week’s edition talking about GSAK. I gave it a listen to see what he had to say. Among other things, it was mentioned that one can easily dip all trackables in caches in one log instead of having to do a separate log for each trackable through the website if you log manually. Last time I checked (just a few minutes ago BTW), you can still log all trackables in a cache if you’d like by manually logging a cache on the website. Another thing mentioned is that you need GSAK to correct coordinates. Not quite, you’ve been able to update the coordinates of all cache types since at least October of last year and of those on multis and mystery types since I started caching in 2008, right on the cache page. The cache I logged before coming into the forums was a multi, and I had the coords for the final listed on the cache page since my last visit there about a week and a half ago, and that led me right to the final, without the services of GSAK.
-The Happy Hodag!
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
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