A v čem je problém? Man to popisuje naprosto jasně:
tcpdump ... [ -C file_size ] ... [ -w file ]
       -C     Before writing a raw packet to a savefile, check whether the file is currently larger than  file_size  and,  if
              so, close the current savefile and open a new one.  Savefiles after the first savefile will have the name spec-
              ified with the -w flag, with a number after it, starting at 1 and continuing upward.  The  units  of  file_size
              are millions of bytes (1,000,000 bytes, not 1,048,576 bytes).
       -w   Write the raw packets to file rather than parsing and printing them out.  They can later be printed with the -r
              option.  Standard output is used if file is ``-''.
Všimni si, že s "-w" se neukládá textový popis paketů, ale samotná data tak, jak jsou. To je úspornější. Další možnost úspory je vyfiltrovat jenom to, co tě zajímá.