pn offset the pilot channel signal accounts for approximately 10 of the total forward link transmitted power this coupled with the pilot signal being non orthogonal to the data requires the searcher algorithm to perform longer coherent integration i e integration which includes phase information as compared to the coherent integration performed in such systems as is95 in the presence of large frequency offsets between the base station 170 and a subscriber unit 101 the magnitude of the values output by the integrator 280 become small and limited this limits the ability of the subscriber to detect pn offsets as a result large coherent integration or a longer coherent integration can only be achieved by stepping the frequency synthesizer into multiple frequency bins multiple frequency ranges starting from the ideal carrier frequency an automatic frequency control loop is stepped as a result of the unknown frequency offset due to oscillator mismatch between the base station and the subscriber station 101 this frequency mismatch can be as high as 2 5 ppm of 1 9 ghz or approximately 5 khz a coherent integration length of 32 symbols i e 2 10 chips results in the detection curve shown in fig7 as seen in fig7 a frequency offset of u00b1 200 hz results in an approximately 2 db loss of pilot detection power whereas an offset of u00b1 400 hz may cause a pilot estimation power degradation of up to 13 dbs therefore to ensure proper pilot signal detection the pilot searcher is set such that it steps through frequency bins of approximately 200 hz in the preferred embodiment the starting point for steeping through the.