I understand how PL tones work on simplex from HT to HT.

AND

I understand you need to transmit the correct PL tone to a repeater with the correct offset to open it for your transmission.

BUT

Does the repeater broadcast it's own PL tone back to my HT to open it, or does it do an "open" TX?

I never though about it until I started pluggin repeater freqs into my table with both encode and decode CTCSS columns and it's not really covered in the "Now you're talking" book.

Most do "open" TX. They usually do not TX a PL tone. Linked systems and "private" repeaters may use PL on TX.

i havent seen/talked on any that do but i have heard of some that do. if your getting feedback from the repeater or talking on them and receiving it isnt a problem.

Some do, some do not, you'll just have to check that particular repeater.  They all should TX the same tone they use on receive.  Back when we had open repeaters I set ours up to TX tone anyway, with the tone dropping out about 1/2 second before the TX carrier dropped so if you used PL at the mobile end you would not hear any squelch tails.

Some repeaters allow the PL tone being transmitted on the input frequency to pass straight through, so that it can also be heard by other radios listening on the output frequency. Others use a high-pass audio filter that blocks it.

Typically, when using a repeater, you only enable the PL tones for your transmitter - not the PL squelch for your receiver. So, even though a PL tone is required to transmit through the repeater, nobody on the receiving end needs any PL tones to receive it.

Note that there are exceptions - Sometimes, several repeaters on the same output frequency share the same coverage area. As long as the PL tones they pass through are different from each other, it will be possible for users of one repeater to "ignore" signals from the other repeater, simply by setting their PL squelches to the PL frequency of their desired repeater.

Ok, so I'm gonna go with MAYBE.

I just found a local one that specified PL tones both in and out. I guess I'll just need to play with them and see.

Thanks for the answers.

Just because it sends a PL tone on the output side doesn't mean that you need it for receiving.

Even if your radio wasn't equipped with a PL encoder or PL squelch, you could still hear the repeater just fine.

Again, the usual convention is:
PL transmit tone ON, whenever the repeater requires it.
PL receiver squelch OFF, unless there's some good reason to enable it.

Yeah, I know that from working with my scanner. I'm sure they set it to help clean up the trash.

What you are talking about is called "Tone Squelch".

The tone out is not required to be programmed. It is useful when two repeaters with the same output can be heard and you only want to hear one of them.