What: GSAK 101
Where: (Ruth Vine) Tyler Library, 8041 S. Wood St., Midvale, UT
When: 1:30-4:30
By popular demand!
More and more people have been asking for a class. Answering questions on-line doesn't seem to be meeting the need. We'll get together on this Saturday afternoon to learn the ins and outs of GSAK. Like the last time we did this I will have an agenda planned and lead us through it. Although I know GSAK pretty well I don't know everything. Therefore I will serve as a discussion facilitator as well as a trainer.
Definitely bring a pen to take notes. Workbooks will be supplied. I’ll add a link to this page to download the workbooks early for those who would like to do so. You may also want to bring your laptop with the latest version of GSAK installed (available at gsak.net) and an extension cord.
We're in a library this time so NO FOOD OR DRINK except water. We can all grab food together afterwards if people want. Also because it is in the library it must be open to the public. We may have a few people drop by who want to learn about geocaching. Please be prepared to help me make these people feel welcome and convert them to our obsession, uh, hobby.
Hope to see you there!!
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From my note posted 11/1/2012
Actually I appreciate the questions here. Last time I did a class I asked people to use the UTAG forums to ask questions and never got a single one. Although I'm not a fan of discussions happening on cache pages, I think this is a good one for an exception. Hopefully it will get others playing with their GSAK, developing their skills, and thinking about how they can use GSAK to further their caching purposes.
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Some people will want to do more than install GSAK in preparation for the class. In fact it would be great if everyone showed up with a database ready to work with. To maximize your caching it is best to have a database set up for a particular area. The easiest way to consistently define an area is by state. Some may not be comfortable going that far. Let me at least encourage everyone to do step 1, set up and download the Pocket Queries (PQs). I will help you pull them into GSAK during class. What follows will be Lesson 1. How to set up a GSAK database for the state of Utah.
There are two parts to this process, step 1 on geocaching.com (GC.com) and step 2 in GSAK. For the part on GC.com you must be a premium member. If you aren’t already, just do it. Caching and using GSAK will be so much easier for you.
Step 1: On GC.com you will need to set up 26 PQs as there are a little more than 25,800 active caches in the state of Utah. By the time of the seminar it may break 27,000. The easiest way to get all the caches in Utah is to set up the PQs using date ranges.
Here are the PQ settings. If the heading is not listed below, don’t do anything with that setting.
Query Name: (recommended) UT# start date-end date
1000 Caches Total
Within:
Click States/Provinces
Scroll down and highlight Utah
Placed During:
Between
08/1/2000-7/14/2003
07/15/2003-2/25/2005
02/26/2005-03/06/2006
3/7/2006-10/16/2006
10/17/2006-5/9/2007
05/10/2007-10/13/2007
10/14/2007-3/28/2008
03/29/2008-7/1/2008
07/2/2008-10/16/2008
10/17/2008-3/16/2009
03/17/2009-6/15/2009
06/17/2009-10/2/2009
10/3/2009-3/3/2010
03/4/2010-5/12/2010
05/13/2010-6/23/2010
06/24/2010-8/24/2010
08/25/2010-10/19/2010
10/20/2010-12/31/2010
01/1/2011-4/15/2011
04/16/2011-6/29/2011
06/30/2011-9/19/2011
09/20/2011-11/1/11
11/2/11-1/10/2012
01/11/12-4/19/2012
04/20/2012-7/21/2012
07/22/2012-10/10/2012
10/11/2012-12/31/2012
Once you’ve made the first you can Copy it (lightning bolt icon to left of Sunday check box on list of PQs) to make the other 25. Just change the date range after you copy each.
It will take you at least six days (5 per day plus 1 on the last day) to run them if they are the only queries you run. As each group of five runs, download them, the zip files, to your computer. It is not necessary to unzip them.
Now it’s time for Step 2: Bringing the queries into GSAK.
Open GSAK
Click Database->New
Name it Utah and leave the rest of the settings on default.
Click OK.
You will now be in a blank database named Utah
Click File->Load GPX/LOC/ZIP
Uncheck Use defaults (under all file selection drop downs in Load options, to right of greyed out file type which will be greyed out until you uncheck this box)
The only option you need to set is Load Type. (a hair right and below center of dialog box) Pick Folder.
Click the folder icon at the top. Navigate to the folder you have your zipped PQs in.
Click OK.
Go do something else for a while. This is going to take some time.
When you come back, you’ll have a database full of every cache in Utah!!! Now you are ready to start filtering with much greater refinement than GC.com allows for what you want to find next.