This paper is concerned with various aspects of the characterization of randomly time-variant linear channels. At the outset it is demonstrated that time-varying linear channels (or filters) may be characterized in an interesting symmetrical manner in time and frequency variables by arranging system functions in (timefrequency) dual pairs. Following this a statistical characterization of randomly time-variant linear channels is carried out in terms of correlation functions for the various system functions. These results are specialized by considering three classes of practically interesting channels. These are the wide-sense stationary (WSS) channel, the uncorrelated scattering (US) channel, and the wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) channel. The WSS and US channels are shown to be (time-frequency) duals. Previous discussions of channel correlation functions and their relationships have dealt exclusively with the WSSUS channel. The point of view presented here of dealing with the dually related system functions and starting with the unrestricted linear channels is considerably more general and places in proper perspective previous results on the WSSUS channel. Some attention is given to the problem of characterizing radio channels. A model called the Quasi-WSSUS channel is presented to model the behavior of such channels. All real-life channels and signals have an essentially finite number of degrees of freedom due to restrictions on time duration and bandwidth. This fact may be used to derive useful canonical channel models with the aid of sampling theorems and power series expansions. Several new canonical channel models are derived in this paper, some of which are dual to those of Kailath.