importing sun rasterfiles

I just tried to use r.in.sunrast and it complained

" - this rasterfile format not supported"

My files are

" rasterfile, 3074x1938x8 run-length byte encoded image"

Is it the run length encoding which is the problem?
If so, is there any way to convert this *without* going
all the way to ascii (I think my machine might get indegestion!)

I'm using grass4.0.

Thanks

Simon Cox

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__________________________________________________________________
        Dr Simon Cox
         __ L
      ,~' L_|\ Department of Earth Sciences
   ,-' \ Monash University
   ( \ Clayton Vic 3168 Australia
   \ ___ /
    L,~' "\_x/ Phone +61 3 565 5762
              u Fax +61 3 565 5062
        simon@cerberus.earth.monash.edu.au
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