[marin8703]

one reason you might want it to come on when not in reverse would be to watch something you are towing. depending on what head unit you have, you do not need to do anything different to be able to have the camera on at anytime, the head unit will take care of it (depending on the head unit). I have the pioneer avic z1 and i beleive f5fstop has the same. you hook it up to power and to the reverse signal wire as you would normaly and it comes on automaticaly when you shift to reverse, or you can click on the head unit (at any time, drive, park whatever) and it will bring up the camera.

as for splicing, i dont think it makes much of a difference. as long as you use the right gauge splice ( so that it doesnt cut the wire , or be too loose to make a conetion) i dont think anything else would make a difference. maybe some gold plated ones would contact better but dont think thats necesary. the ones i used were nothing special, i just got from home depot. I put electrical tape over them to make sure it stays on there, just in case. also when connecting two wires end to end i prefer to solder them together.