One further bit of "evidence" for the VHF engine monitoring signals being picked up by NSA satellites is that the reporting and the white house both specifically mention that the engines kept running.
If this was just normal satellite pinging being identified then why would they mention the engines running?
However, if the RR VHF transmissions were being picked up by the NSA then they could actually see that the engine diagnostics were the ones doing the pinging and, presumably, they only do that when powered up.