An apparatus for processing pulses in ATCRBS/Mode S interrogations includes an antenna for receiving a radio frequency interrogation signal. The radio frequency interrogation signal is downconverted by a downconverter to an intermediate frequency signal. The intermediate frequency signal is converted to a digitized interrogation signal by an analog-to-digital converter. A processing unit, coupled to the analog-to-digital converter, detects a pulse peak in the digitized interrogation signal using a moving threshold to locate the peak pulse between a first fixed threshold and a second fixed threshold.