The present invention is a novel and improved method and system for performing the pilot frequency tracking operation for coherent demodulation in a system employing a gated pilot signal. In particular, the present invention describes a method and apparatus in which two frequency tracking loops operate in parallel. The first frequency tracking loop performs its tracking operation based on the hypothesis that the received pilot is continuous throughout the frame's duration. The second frequency tracking loop performs the tracking operation based on the hypothesis that the received pilot is discontinuous and is only present for a portion of the frame's duration.