Dead track handling

Claim 1

A RECORD READING SYSTEM OF THE BINARY ERASURE CHANNEL TYPE IN WHICH DATA BITS, FORMING A DATA BYTE, ARE PRESENTED ON SEPARATE TRACKS IN PARALLEL BUT MORE OR LESS OUT OF SYNCHRONISM AT THE READING LEVEL AND ARE SEPARATELY ASSEMBLED IN A MULTI-TRACK MULTI-BIT ELECTRONIC DESKEWING MECHANISM AS A BYTE FOR FURTHER PROCESSING BY CIRCUITS WHICH MAY INCLUDE ERROR CORRECTION MECHANISM, CHARACTERIZED BY PROVISION, FOR EACH TRACK, IN ADDITION TO THE NORMAL DATA FLOW PATH AND VARIABLE FREQUENCY CLOCK, OF DEAD TRACK MECHANISM COMPRISING: (A) "SUBMINIMAL SIGNAL IDENTIFICATION" MEANS, CONNECTED TO THE SIGNAL SOURCE FOR THE TRACK AT THE READING LEVEL, TO SCAN THE DATA BIT SIGNAL PRESENTATION AND RESPOND TO SUBMINIMAL QUALITY OF SIGNAL ENVELOPE WITH A (SUBMINIMAL SIGNAL IDENTIFICATION) SIGNAL; (B) "DEAD TRACK ERROR SIGNAL PRODUCING" MEANS SETTABLE BY THE (SUBMINIMAL SIGNAL IDENTIFICATION) SIGNAL, TO PROVIDE TO THE ELECTRONIC DESKEWING MECHANISM AND ANY ERROR CORRECTION MECHANISM A CONTINUOUS (ERROR) SIGNAL WHEN SET; AND (C) "DEAD TRACK DEFINITION" MEANS CONNECTING SAID "SUBMINIMAL SIGNAL IDENTIFICATION" MEANS (A) TO SAID "DEAD TRACK ERROR SIGNAL PRODUCING" MEANS (B), FOR DETERMINING THE RESET OF SAID "DEAD TRACK SIGNAL PRODUCING" MEANS (B) TO END SAID CONTINUOUS (ERROR) SIGNAL.