The Selection of Optimum Time Constants for RC Filters with Random Signals

The application of statistics to the measurement of random signals, with particular emphasis on count-rate-meters, is considered. It is shown that under certain criteria, there are optimum values of time constants in the countrate-meter circuit that will produce the desired results. While the emphasis is placed on the count-rate-meter, the same approach can be used to measure signals in the presence of noise where RC type smoothing is present.