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> I converted postamt.dbf (327 bytes) to postamt.sql (501 bytes - longer
> because each record starts with the string INSERT INTO postamt VALUES(
> to postamt.db (3072 bytes).  The sqlite .db file has long stretches of
> absolute garbage ^@ at the beginning and end.
> 

This will probably just be padding. Remember this is a binary file, not text 
- and how an editor sees the non-text characters is fairly arbitrary. I
think nul (i.e. a zero byte) often displays as ^@.

> I converted my larger dbf file from dbf to db and it grew from 430K to
> 960K, more than double.  It also has long stretches of caret-atsign
> in between records.
> 
> This sort of resembles DNA - long stretches of meaningless repeats.
> I may experiment with removing them and see what happens.

You can try ... but I suspect it will break the database.  I suspect the 
padding is due to fixed length records, so if you remove it, the database
will be confused about where the next record begins.

Ian