binmode (STDIN);
local $/ = undef;

while (read (STDIN, $record, 1468)) {
    my $parsed = &decode_record ($record);
    print_record ($parsed);
}

##</code><code>##

sub decode_record ($) {
    my $record = shift;

    my %rec;
    $rec{"date"}	= unpack ("a8", $record);
    $rec{"time"}	= unpack ("x8a8", $record);
  (snip)
    $rec{"el_time"}	= unpack ("x48a4",  $record);
    $rec{"samples"}	= unpack ("x52a4",  $record);
  (snip)
  
  return \%rec;
}

##</code><code>##

sub parse_E ($) {
    my $data = shift;

    my ($sign, $characteristic, $fraction);
    $sign = ($data & 0x80000000) ? -1 : 1;
    $characteristic = (($data >> 24) & 0x7f) - 64;
    $fraction = (($data & 0x00ffffff) / 0xffffff) * 16;
    my $num = $sign * $fraction ** $characteristic;

    printf("DEBUG: parse_E(%32s)\n\tsign: %d charisteristic: %d ".
 	   "fraction: %f = %f\n",
 	   unpack ("B32", $data), $sign, $characteristic, 
 	   $fraction, $num);
    printf("DEBUG: unpacked characteristic  %s\n", 
	   unpack ("B7", ($data >> 24) & 0x7f));
    printf("DEBUG: unpacked fraction        %7s%s\n", " ",
	   unpack ("B24",  $data & 0x00ffffff));

    return $num;
}

##</code><code>##

Argument "B<\0\0" isn't numeric in bitwise and (&) at ./testparse.pl line 47.
DEBUG: parse_E(01000010001111000000000000000000)
        sign: 1 charisteristic: -64 fraction: 0.000000 = -inf
DEBUG: unpacked characteristic  0011000
DEBUG: unpacked fraction               00110000

##</code><code>##

DEBUG: parse_E(00110001001100010011000100110001)
        sign: 1 charisteristic: 2 fraction: 3.750000 = 14.062502
DEBUG: unpacked characteristic  0011011
DEBUG: unpacked fraction               001100110011100100110011