New Maine Challenge Posted

[papollo]

In part because of the discussion we saw here concerning the rules for challenge caches, we pushed on with our project and this week had accepted for publication a new Maine challenge cache - http://coord.info/GC3EZP4 The final cache is in mid-Androscoggin County.

[brdad]

Nice. Having created a GSAK macro which specifies the town for any given cache I was about to place a town-related challenge but have decided against it. I'm surprised with the new guidelines this one got through, I guess you were just in time!

BTW, there are currently 227 Maine towns which have available 1/1 caches:
Abbot, Albany Twp, Alexander, Alfred, Alna, Amherst, Appleton, Arundel, Atkinson, Auburn, Augusta, Aurora, Baileyville, Baldwin, Bangor, Bar Harbor, Baring Plt, Batchelders Grant Twp, Bath, Belfast, Berwick, Bethel, Biddeford, Blue Hill, Boothbay, Bowdoin, Brewer, Bridgton, Brighton Plt, Brooksville, Brunswick, Buckfield, Bucksport, Burnham, Buxton, Calais, Canaan, Canton, Cape Elizabeth, Caratunk, Caribou, Casco, Chelsea, Clinton, Columbia, Concord Twp, Coplin Plt, Crystal, Cumberland, Cutler, Damariscotta, Dedham, Dexter, Dixmont, Durham, East Machias, East Millinocket, Eddington, Edgecomb, Eliot, Elliottsville Twp, Ellsworth, Eustis, Fairfield, Falmouth, Farmington, Fort Fairfield, Fort Kent, Frankfort, Franklin, Freeport, Frenchtown Twp, Friendship, Fryeburg, Garland, Georgetown, Gorham, Grand Lake Stream Plt, Gray, Greene, Greenville, Greenwood, Hallowell, Hancock, Hanover, Harpswell, Harrison, Hartford, Hebron, Hobbstown Twp, Houlton, Howland, Indian Twp Res, Jefferson, Jim Pond Twp, Jonesboro, Jonesport, Kennebunk, Kingfield, Kittery, Lebanon, Leeds, Lewiston, Liberty, Limington, Lincoln, Lincolnville, Lisbon, Litchfield, Littleton, Long Island, Lovell, Lubec, Machias, Madawaska, Madison, Manchester, Mapleton, Mechanic Falls, Medford, Milo, Milton Twp, Minot, Molunkus Twp, Monhegan Island Plt, Monmouth, Monroe, Montville, Moscow, Mount Desert, Naples, New Gloucester, New Sweden, Newcastle, Newport, Newry, No 21 TWP, Norridgewock, North Berwick, North Yarmouth, Northport, Norway, Oakfield, Oakland, Ogunquit, Old Orchard Beach, Orland, Orono, Orrington, Otisfield, Owls Head, Oxford, Paris, Patten, Pembroke, Peru, Pittsfield, Poland, Porter, Portland, Presque Isle, Princeton, Prospect, Rangeley, Rangeley Plt, Raymond, Readfield, Richmond, Riley Twp, Robbinston, Rockland, Rumford, Sabattus, Saco, Sandy Bay Twp, Sanford, Sapling Twp, Scarborough, Searsmont, Sherman, Sidney, Skowhegan, Smithfield, Solon, South Berwick, South Portland, Southwest Harbor, Spencer Bay Twp, Standish, Steuben, Stoneham, Sullivan, Sumner, Swanville, Sweden, T1 R9 WELS, T2 R8 NWP, T3 R11 WELS, T43 MD BPP, T7 R5 WELS, Taunton & Raynham Academy Grant, Thomaston, Topsham, Tremont, Trenton, Turner, Vassalboro, Veazie, Waterford, Waterville, Wayne, Weld, Wells, West Bath, West Gardiner, West Paris, Westbrook, Weston, Windham, Windsor, Winslow, Winter Harbor, Winthrop, Woodstock, Woolwich, Yarmouth, York

The only unfortunate part, which has nothing to do with the challenge is that in my experience many if not most 1/1 rated caches are not correctly rated.

This makes another challenge cache I need to add to the list on this web site, I will do that soon along with the other new ones.

[papollo]

May I get that macro from you? I want to learn how to build GSAK macros and if I could use yours as an example that would be very helpful to me.

[brdad]

The macro I created for populating GSAk with Maine towns is on the GSAK web site: http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=19842

The macro I used to create the map I posted is still in it's infancy and needs much more work before it's made public.

The Maine towns macro may not be the best macro to learn from because (a) I'm not a real programmer, I just play one on TV (b) it involves a few advanced features as the zip file containing all the polygons for each town are embedded in the macro. But don't let that stop you - you could still learn something from it, and it's a great macro if you like to know what town a given cache is in.

But the beauty is, you are free to look as all GSAK macros are text based and can be easily viewed with a text editor or the macro editor. There are many other macros on the GSAK site to look at for reference as well. The help file is a great resource for writing macros as well. Feel free to send me a note or post in the GSAK section of this web site if there's some way I can help write one.

[TeamHorwich]

quick question...when I run the macro it populates my user field with the town names, but many of them come up with "Page-1" or some other page #...why does that happen?

[brdad]

quick question...when I run the macro it populates my user field with the town names, but many of them come up with "Page-1" or some other page #...why does that happen?

My first guess is that some of the fields were already populated from another macro - And since they are page numbers I would guess it is/was for Delorme map pages. Please run the macro again and uncheck the "Update only empty records" box. This will clear all fields. If that does not work let me know and I will investigate further.

GSAK now has the capability to have a custom column which I can use for towns, and a future version of the macro will incorporate this and prevent this from happening.