A method and apparatus is disclosed to determine communications receiver parameters from multiple channels of a received communications signal and to configure and/or adjust communications receiver parameters to acquire one or more channels from among the multiple channels of the received communications signal. A communications receiver observes a multi-channel communication signal as it passes through a communication channel. The communications receiver determines one or more communications receiver parameters from the multiple channels of the received communications signal. The communications receiver configures and/or adjusts communications receiver parameters to acquire the one or more channels from among the multiple channels of the received communications signal.