A method for operation of a receiver of a spread spectrum system. The method includes generating in the receiver an expected signal, the expected signal being a function of time and frequency correlating the received time and frequency of the received signal with time and frequency shifted parameters of the expected signal deriving a computational expression indicative of the value of the correlation at a point displaced in time by the time offset plus the time shift and displaced in frequency by the frequency offset plus the frequency shift, and comparing the correlation measure with the computational expression to determine the time offset and the frequency offset.