A method for the acquisition of synchronisation signals in a spread spectrum communication system includes:Receiving a synchronisation signal,Applying to said synchronisation signal a dwelling procedure, including calculating a matched filter output, calculating the energy value of said matched filter output, and accumulating said energy values over a range equal to the slot length in a RAM,Repeating said dwelling procedure,After each dwelling procedure searching the maximum energy value and the corresponding RAM address,Comparing the address found with the address corresponding to the maximum in the previous dwelling procedure,If said address is the same, incrementing a counter that keeps the number of consecutive occurrences of a maximum at the same position,otherwise setting the counter to zero,When said counter reaches a user defined threshold value, breaking off the dwelling procedure, andPassing said RAM address to a receiver timing device.