Savage

That is simply awesomely lovely! 

Have a look at this site for mobile wiring recommendations. While the topic is mobile Ham gear the same exact recommendations apply for GMRS radios.
 
http://www.k0bg.com/wiring.html

Fuse the hot lead very close to the power supply.
 
If the radio is cutting during transmit, the most likely cause would be inadequate wire size. Size chart attached.

Glad you figured it out, I was about to mention the off hook decode/scan. Basically with off hook decode is disabled, if the mic is in the hanger it'll require the correct DCS code to break the squelch however with it off the hanger it'll open up for everything. This is meant for companies running 2 or 3 user groups on the same frequency so you know the channel is clear before you transmit. I don't know of too many other applications its used for.

Pretty!
It looks like I can have my amateur woodworking questions answered here? Before I was going to motorcycle forums for that kind of advice.

Probably several days but I always put it on the charger at night so I can't say for sure. For example, today my btech 50x1 was on it all day scanning and I transmitted for maybe 30 mins total on high power (50 watts) and it never dropped below 14.1 volts. The radio needs a minimum of 13.8 so I figure under normal use I can get several days out of a single charge. I also have 2 large deep cycle batteries from my trolling motor that I keep hooked up to a 100w solar panel so in the worst case scenario I have that to fall back on. The small battery I use for my station is the 10ah harbor freight one for their electric start generators. It's smaller than a lawn tractor battery and easy to transport so that is why I use it. I think a regular size car or truck battery and a small solar panel would be more than enough to keep you on the air 24/7 as long as you you aren't rag chewing the whole time

I went the bare bones route with a 100w harbor freight solar kit, it comes with everything you need minus a battery and an inverter. I just wanted something to keep my radios online and charge electronics so I don't have to run my generator 24/7 in the event of a long term power outage like we have had in the past from ice storms. The long term plan is to expand my solar to 400w so I can run my fridge and deep freezer intermittently off an inverter to keep food from spoiling. I run wood stoves in the winter anyway to keep my heating bills low so that covers that.

I don't know how many will care about this but I built a box and thought I'd post it.
 
For the woodworkers here, please ignore the joints.  I used the miter corner "tape trick" instead of clamping and the thing blew up on me during glue up and I had to scramble for clamps.  Didn't get my usual, clean corners.  I was also too lazy to route the edges.
 

 

 
 

 

I'll bite here.
 
Rugged 575 in Naperville, IL has a 1500VA APC which is cheap as a primary AC battery backup.  This will run my repeater for a LONG time... Like a couple days or more depending on usage.  After that dies I have a 90AH Lithium Iron Phosphate battery (LiFEpo4 like others have already mentioned) that I built myself from scratch.  This will run that repeater for about a week as well.  What is nice is that if you get a proper commercial repeater (I have several Kenwood TKR-850's) is that you can set it to not only send out a tone over the air when the power switches to backup power but also to transmit a subtle beep when you are using it so you know it's on emergency/backup power.  Take that a step further and you can also set the repeater to go down to 50% power (or any amount of power I choose) once it goes to said backup system to further extend your run time.  I didn't do that myself as I believe in emergency situations being at full capacity is ideal... That and I have so many other batteries and generators that I wouldn't even worry lol.
 
If you wanna save a ton of money (Like half the cost) I suggest you learn how to build your own LiFEpo4 batteries.  Battle born batteries are nice but you're paying $1,000 for a battery you can build yourself for $550.  The best resource for that would be to watch Will Prowse's videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoj6RxIAQq8kmJme-5dnN0Q
 
Thanks!

Ya'll got me thinking..  I have 400w solar, 4 6v RV batteries and a 2000w pure sine wave inverter in my 5th wheel camp trailer parked near the house.  I've left the batteries in going on 5 winters and just let the quality charge controller handle the maintenance.  I do check water twice per year but so far have been able to leave them through the winter with no issues.
What I do not have is a base, mobile, or repeater installed in the 5'er but I was already considering installing one in the place where the AM/FM Stereo is from the factory, or I can find another spot easy enough.
I had not thought of that for any kind of emergency use but more for our couple months per year camping.  However, with 2 repeaters within HT range from the house (and one of them that hit me with ID from 50 miles while hunting at altitude) I guess it could be a decent base station if I want to play with it.  From what I'm reading I already have everything needed except the mobile and antenna.  ??

That looks great if you ask me. I can show you a butcher job that I did building a 19” rack cabinet on wheels that holds a primary and backup repeater. It might not be pretty but it does the job and other than the wheels, I had everything else and decided to just use what I already had. It beats the price of a professionally built cabinet and I’m the only one that ever sees it. Now, if I end up having to relocate the repeater to a location other than my house, I’ll suck it up and spend the money on a real cabinet or ask you to build it lol. There’s no way I would want anyone to see my sad attempt at building one.
Yours on the other hand, I’d be proud to show off, exactly as it is. Nice job !

I like the simplicity of this. 
 
Thinking along these lines, any idea how a 100 watt solar panel hooked to a solar distribution controller to a 12 volt deep cycle battery (similar to your Trojan setup) would do?  I'm in So Cal so the one good thing we do have is sun.

I have several LFP, Lithium Iron Phosphate, batteries. Gave up on any type of Lead Acid since they tend to get wrecked if you don't keep them on a battery tender at all times to trickle charge. The LFP's can be charged up and sit around for months or longer, great for emergency use, and they don't discharge hardly at all. In fact for long term storage it's recommended NOT to fully charge them. Try that with a Lead Acid type and you will kill it.
 
The LFP batteries have a higher terminal voltage, around 13.3 VDC to 13.4 VDC when charged making them a better match to mobile equipment that expects a nominal 13.8 VDC. When the battery is nearly discharged, 90 plus percent, the terminal voltage is still around 12.8 VDC more or less. A Lead Acid battery is around 12 VDC when its at 50 percent capacity. Most mobile equipment spec's 13.8 VDC at +/- 15 percent so the low voltage cut off is at 11.5 VDC. You won't get most of the capacity out of a Lead Acid battery before the electronics starts to shut down or misbehave. 
 
The down side to LFP batteries is the cost and you need a special LFP charger for them. If you do buy a battery make sure you get a charger for it.
 
I also have several MPPT charge controllers for solar panels. The charge controllers are used to keep the battery packs up.
 
The link below is for a company that is friendly to two-way radio users for batteries and chargers. I have one of the 6 amp-hour packs for portable handheld radios and one of the 40 amp-hour ones for fixed location use.
 
The charge controllers I have are from this company below. I have several of the GV-5 charge controllers for LFP batteries.
 
https://sunforgellc.com/genasun/#gen_product_row
 
The company below has decent prices on solar panels. I have a couple of the 50 watt, one 30 watt, and a couple of the 10 watt mono crystalline panels. 
 
https://www.renogy.com/solar-panels/
 
If anybody has a need for a pure sine wave inverter this company has some good products. I have the 300 watt version with a builtin GFI.
 
https://gpelectric.com/product-category/inverters/pure-sine-wave-inverters/
 
For connections I use Anderson Power Pole connectors. A good source is from Powerwerx. Also one or two of the DC inline power meters comes in handy too.
 
https://powerwerx.com/anderson-power-powerpole-sb-connectors
 
https://powerwerx.com/watt-meter-analyzer-inline-dc-powerpole

I used to have a solar array hooked up to my system, but I took it off line due to the fact the solar regulator was cheap, and inferior. It tended to over-charge the batteries, and boil them out on very sunny days. 
 
If I had the money to spend, I would switch to a different type of charge controller, and go with LiFePo batteries, but for now, my setup is working just fine for me, and has been for several years now.  It is great for temporary power outages - but if I lived in California, or someplace with rolling blackouts, I don't think it would last long. In my case, the power was out for about an hour and a half last spring during a thunderstorm, and it worked fine through that, allowing me to keep checking into the weather net on the local 440 repeater.  My power is very reliable. I flickers or browns out on a semi-regular basis, but it has only been totally off for about an hour or two at a time, 4 times in the last 15 years.  Major props to South Central Public Power District of Nelson Nebraska! Great job guys.

Thanks all!  Going to digest this and see where it goes.

I have a pair of 6-Volt Trojan golf cart batteries sitting in a large plastic tote just outside of the house.  The batteries are hooked in series with a 100 Amp Maxi Fuse for short-circuit protection.  I have #2 copper welding cables running inside the house to a ground bar, and a 12 Volt distribution block with 12 ATO type fuses.  (look for 'marine fuse block') Everything in my ham shack, including my GMRS repeater, runs from that.  I have a regulated power supply hooked up to it to float-charge the batteries.
 
The power rarely goes out here, but if it ever did, I have a portable 5KW Generac Niagara mounted to a steel wagon siting in my garage, ready to wheel out and plug into the changeover panel on the back of the house.

I don't know how many will care about this but I built a box and thought I'd post it.
 
For the woodworkers here, please ignore the joints.  I used the miter corner "tape trick" instead of clamping and the thing blew up on me during glue up and I had to scramble for clamps.  Didn't get my usual, clean corners.  I was also too lazy to route the edges.
 

 

 
 

 

I don't know how many will care about this but I built a box and thought I'd post it.
 
For the woodworkers here, please ignore the joints.  I used the miter corner "tape trick" instead of clamping and the thing blew up on me during glue up and I had to scramble for clamps.  Didn't get my usual, clean corners.  I was also too lazy to route the edges.
 

 

 
 

 

I don't know how many will care about this but I built a box and thought I'd post it.
 
For the woodworkers here, please ignore the joints.  I used the miter corner "tape trick" instead of clamping and the thing blew up on me during glue up and I had to scramble for clamps.  Didn't get my usual, clean corners.  I was also too lazy to route the edges.
 

 

 
 

 

Looks awesome! Nice work.

I don't know how many will care about this but I built a box and thought I'd post it.
 
For the woodworkers here, please ignore the joints.  I used the miter corner "tape trick" instead of clamping and the thing blew up on me during glue up and I had to scramble for clamps.  Didn't get my usual, clean corners.  I was also too lazy to route the edges.
 

 

 
 

 

Talkaround is repeater offset defeat.  Uses a preset channel normally used with a repeater (and different transmit and receive frequencies) but directly using the normal receive frequency for both transmit and receive (also known as 'simplex')

Zones are for, as you have done, sorting channels into groups. I have set Zone 1 as local repeaters, Zone 2 as all repeater channels, Zone 3 for conventional GMRS channels and Zone 4 I added local FD/EMS.

as for ID number, many kenwood radios have two ID modes. Fleetsync and MDC1200. If configured the ID number will be send on each transmit, and if you configure your radio correctly, it will display a name when the code is received. These modes will also allow you to page particular users, and even send messages.

Don’t worry too much. Any cable that works is just fine. There is no such thing as one cable working better than another. However, there are some cables that just plain don’t work. Though, even with them the problem is usually with the USB chip drivers on the PC and not the cables themselves. In general, the cables with FTDI chips seem to me more reliable. The Prolific chips are fine as well. However, unfortunately there are a lot of counterfeit Prolific chips in the market and they won’t work with the standard Prolific drivers. Note that Bluemax49ers sells cables with both chip sets, though the FTDI are usually more expensive.

Never hurts to throw in an extra plug, especially for people new to GMRS, or radio in general. And, they have been frequently recommended over the past several years.