for an ordinary calculator with 10 decimal digits of precision (a tad more than 33 bits), you don't have a problem if both a and b are < 2^16; the trick is how to do this when a and b are more than five decimal digits and still not lose precision.
wlg, assume that r is even, r <= 32, and a, b < 2^r;
a and b are at most 32 bits long
rewrite a and b as a1 * 2^(r/2) + a0 and b1 * 2^(r/2) + b0, where a1 = int(a / 2^(r/2)) and a0 = a mod 2^(r/2).
a0, a1, b0, b1 are at most 16 bits long
then a*b becomes a1*b1*2^r = (a1*b0 + a0*b1) * 2^(r/2) + a0*b0.
and a*b mod 2^r becomes:
(((a1*b0 + a0*b1 ) mod 2^(r/2)) * 2^(r/2) + a0*b0 ) mod 2^r
the partial products are at most 32 bits long, and at no point do the partial sums exceed 33 bits, so it all fits in a standard 10-digit calculator.
I hope you don't really need that translated into RPN!
/ji