Yup...
Have to agree with F3G also.
Made many Practice calls on both 121.5 & 243 when flying with the UAS.
There always seems to be alot of nonsense offered regarding RT and the use/mis use of such. Especially the use of incorrect procedure. Everyone has to learn sometime, I do recall when I started flying I would press the PTT and my mind would go blank. The solution I found was to practice calls & procedures with a willing victim (who would do likewise), which was a useful way I found to ingrain the structure of a broadcast so that it became second nature.
Making a practice pan call is merely a further extension of this....the distress/urgency call is structured so that the emergency services (or the station relaying) has the minimum amount of information in order to respond (i.e. who, where & what).
So to reiterate F3G and others - Practice pan calls are not a misuse of the frequency.
Incidentally, Boeingboy I assume you have the realvox plugin for your FS 2000 - the lifelike voice quality is atonishing.