JUST to summarize what I gleaned from Richard Quest's painstaking questioning on-air of the test pilot:
ACARS can be "degraded" from the screen, by selecting VHF OFF or SATCOM OFF or DATALINK OFF.
That would allow a 1:07 reporting (ON) and no 1:37 report (OFF).
But unless the CB is pulled or cut, the outside antenna receiver would remain active. The Satellite "ACARS handshake attempt" faint-ping would find the antenna (and the a/c) and make the report of pings we have seen and heard so much about until 8:11 AM.