ABSTRACT: The objective of this paper is to show from another perspective that the definition of the spectrum of a sampled signal, which is used at present by researchers and engineers, is nothing else than an arbitrary choice for what is possibly not uniquely definable. To this end and for illustration, the Shannon’s proof of reconstruction formula is used. As we know, an auxiliary mathematical entity is constructed in this proof by performing periodization of the spectrum of an analog, bandlimited, energy signal. Admittedly, this entity is not called there a spectrum of the sampled signal - there is simply no need for this in the proof – but as such it is used in signal processing. And, it is not clear why just this auxiliary mathematical object has been chosen in signal processing to play a role of a definition of the spectrum of a sampled signal. We show here what are the interpretation inconsistences associated with the above choice. Finally, we propose another, simpler and more useful definition of the spectrum of a sampled signal, for the cases where it can be needed.

KEYWORDS: Communication, Signal Processing, Signal Characteristics, Signal Spectrum, Spectrum of a Sampled Signal, Signal Sampling, Shannon's Proof, Shannon’s Proof of Reconstruction Formula

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