Well, that's not true. You'll need to perform your own convert statement so that the data is returned to you. The query length is limited by the ftp client. I can't change the clients, so if your client has short command limitations, you might try putting the query in a stored procedure and doing a get on the stored procedure. See Hints for more information.
Some clients have problems with the dir and ls commands.
If your client maps ls to dir, check for an nlist command. If not, see Hints for a workaround. I've considered cancelling the timeout value, when a query is in progress. If not, you'll get an access denied message. The port numbers should be stable, but they can't be made symbolic.