Well,

The media was reporting that it was a Bellanca, and not a Champion Super Decathlon. If that is the case, that may be the reason for no ELT transmission. I am not up to date with the current ELT configurations, but in the Bellanca versions, the ELT was mounted in the aft area with an external antenna mounted next to it. As happened to a good friend of mine who bought it in a 7GCBC Citabria, due to side loads on impact, the ELT separated from the antenna and thus, it could not transmit so it took us a couple of days to find the wreckage.

I don't know how the ELTs are mounted in Champion Decathlons so if it were that version, it could be different. It is also being reported that Steve is/was wearing a Breitiling ELT watch. The watch itself has a built in ELT that you manually activate by pulling out on the time setting knob that pulls out an antenna. It's pretty neat, but you have to be conscious to activate it.

Beave

http://www.breitling.com/orbiter/breit97/eng/emerg.html