Reading old HP-65 program cards

[Dave Britten]

(03-02-2021 06:37 PM)Gene Dorr Wrote:  Does anyone have any experience or advice with respect to reading really old (ca. 1975) HP-65 program cards?

The National Air & Space Museum has in their collection the program cards that were used on the ASTP space flight in 1975, and I'm wondering whether there is actually any chance of being able to read them. It's doubtful they'd allow anyone to even try... but I'm just trying to determine if it's worth trying to convince them.

I understand the rollers degrade quite badly over the decades, so I wouldn't attempt with the HP-65 in their collection -- that would probably have a horrible outcome for both the calculator and the cards.

I'd say you've got reasonably good odds, as long as they haven't been stored in any unusually harsh conditions. I have 5 of HP's application pacs for the 65, and have only found a few cards that needed to be rewritten. I also recently acquired a surveying pac for the 67/97 which included a couple of blanks that the previous owner had written programs on, and I was able to read those just fine.

Perhaps they could be convinced if shown a 65 that is reading cards without any issues?