I had a very interesting conversation with one of the governmental
agencies in their building up at OSH. It began as a discussion of the
new personal locator beacons, and evolved into aircraft epirb's.
After a certain date in the near future, the satellites will no longer
be listening for the 121.5 ELT beacons, they will only monitor for the
400 MHz band signal. The 121.5 signal will only be used as a local
homing signal for SAR forces in close proximity.