Same here, bought a DS1102CA that needed a few rotary encoders replaced. I salvaged them from my old ADS1102CA which is the Atten/Gatten model that is mostly the same, but worse in every category.
I'm not sure about modding it, but I'm somewhat familiar with Verilog/FPGAs. Maybe I'll find something interesting/worth modding without bricking my scope.
I can send links to the manuals (or you can google Rigol DS1102CA like I did) and links to the Ultrascope for 1102CAs if you haven't already found it elsewhere.