One question answered: The deactivated 211 is a silver brick without activation. The OTA channels cannot be viewed, likewise the 9582 channel isn't watchable. You can use it to aim the satellite and scan for ATSC locals, but that's all it's good for. It might play back programs off the EHD if I remembered where the 211's EHD was.
Anyway, the purpose of this exercise was to take this up to our vacation home to add to our PAYG account. I wanted to update the firmware ahead of time instead of during my vacation.