Based on this
db1>SELECT value FROM nls_database_parameters WHERE parameter='NLS_CHARACTERSET';
VALUE
----------------------------------------------------------------
WE8MSWIN1252
To return in the national character set of the database use UNISTR function:
db1>SELECT dump(UNISTR('\00E4'), 1016), UNISTR('\00E4') FROM DUAL;
DUMP(UNISTR('\00E4'),1016) U
---------------------------------------- -
Typ=1 Len=2 CharacterSet=AL16UTF16: 0,e4 ä
To return in the database character set use TO_CHAR:
db1>SELECT DUMP(TO_CHAR(UNISTR('\00E4')), 1016), TO_CHAR(UNISTR('\00E4')) FROM DUAL;
DUMP(TO_CHAR(UNISTR('\00E4')),1016) T
----------------------------------------- -
Typ=1 Len=1 CharacterSet=WE8MSWIN1252: e4 ä
If characters are not shown correctly in SQL*Plus use chcp and NLS_LANG as explained here
db1>host chcp
Active code page: 1252
db1>host echo %NLS_LANG%
.WE8MSWIN1252