Hi Allen!
When attempting to make a contact on the sats one of the customs is to add "handheld", "portable", etc. to your announced call. Would it make sense to start a new custom of adding "Roving" or "Grid Expedition" or something similar when transmitting from a rare grid.
In my opinion, this would not make a lot of sense.
Simply identifying your station, along with a brief description of your location (nearest city/town, county, or something else that does not take too long to say) along with your grid locator(s) should be enough. Your location, not the type of station or operation, is what others need to hear about your activity. Saying "roving", "grid expedition", or even "handheld" takes up a little more time on a pass without conveying anything about where you are. If you are required to say "portable" or some other indicator to comply with the regulations for your license, by all means do that.
This could alert everyone to let that station have some priority in making contacts during that pass.
Although it would be nice to allow the grid expeditions some priority during satellite passes, this is - my opinion - an unrealistic expectation. On AO-51, if arrangements are made in advance, one could get the use of a transponder like K5D had earlier this year. Otherwise, you take a chance whenever you go on a grid expedition and work the FM birds. Not everyone working the FM satellite passes may be interested in the grid expedition.
If you are working a non-FM satellite like VO-52 or AO-7, you could pick a clear spot on the passband and stay there throughout a pass. It would probably be best not to park near the center of the passband, where many (most) tend to hang out. Move a little lower (for CW) or higher (for SSB), find a clear spot, and operate there. Take advantage of the passband and the ability of these satellites to support multiple simultaneous QSOs.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/