The Effects, Measurement, and Analysis of Flutter in Instrumentation Recorders

Abstract

As instrumentation recorders are improved to provide wider bandwidths and shorter recorded wavelengths, the effects of flutter and attendant time base distortion severely limit the potential for accurate recording and retrieval of data. The effects of flutter on typical classes of data is given and the measures necessary to determine flutter with high accuracy shown. Since the degrading effects of flutter depend upon the application and the characteristics of the flutter, means of analyzing flutter both in the time domain and in the frequency domain are necessary. A self contained instrument for accurate measurement and analysis of flutter sensitive enough for the most sophisticated transports is described, as are necessary conditions for its use.