Systems and methods for receiving an OFDM preamble without knowledge of channel characteristics are provided. An OFDM preamble signal with frequency shifted cyclic extensions is received. Taken together the cyclic extensions form a frequency shifted version of the OFDM preamble signal. Frequency offsets and timing offsets are estimated and corrected in an efficient manner using a simple concatenation approach in the time domain, followed by a summation of the OFDM preamble signal and the concatenation after a transformation of the OFDM preamble and the concatenation into the frequency domain. Phase errors in the frequency domain are estimated and corrected after FFT transformations of the received signals. A valid preamble is detected and additional parameters for receiving subsequently transmitted OFDM symbols in a channel are extracted from the OFDM preamble. The methods are computationally efficient and robust. Receiver implementations for performing the methods in a DVB receiver are disclosed.