A channel impulse response (CIR)/DC offset (DCO) joint estimation for a time division synchronous code division multiple access (TDSCDMA) system includes generating from a basic midamble and received midamble an initial estimation of the CIR as a series of CIR taps; storing the initially estimated CIR taps; calculating a DC compensated CIR from the initially estimated CIR taps; filtering out the noise from the DC compensated CIR to produce the CIR estimation; and calculating the DC offset estimation from the CIR estimation.