9810 question and offer

[dramsey]

I just picked up a beautiful 9810 from TAS. Cosmetically, nearly perfect, with no dead segments in the display and a fully functional printer (which I assume means the rubber paper advance roller has been replaced sometime in the past). Haven't checked the card reader yet, but I've rebuilt these before so I'm not too concerned.

Here's my question: although the calculator does not have the "Printer Alpha" ROM, program listings include alpha key representations, something like this:

0030 -- |DIV| -- 053

..line number, key, and key code (the above line is made up and I'm pretty sure that's not the key code for the division key). Inserting the Printer Alpha ROM doesn't change a thing.

I thought the Printer Alpha ROM was required for listings like this. Am I wrong?

Now the fun part: the calc came with 25+ pounds of documentation, cards, and rolls of paper. It was apparently used by Chrysler's California emissions testing lab in the 70s and 80s. I have over a hundred 9810/20 mag cards, both long and short versions. If anybody needs a couple, let me know, and I'll send 'em out for cost of shipping.

Oh, yeah, one more question: many of these cards have their write protect tabs removed. Is there a simple way to write to these cards? (I suppose I could block the optical sensor on the card reader. If it's optical.)