A method including: receiving a modulated signal comprising a framing property marked by a unique word comprising a predefined sequence of symbols; producing a digitally sampled signal corresponding to the modulated signal, the digitally sampled signal having a sampling rate of Na ∗ Rs, wherein Rs is a symbol rate of the modulated signal and Na is a number of samples per symbol; determining a frequency offset associated with the modulated signal and a location of the unique word within a frame of the modulated signal, wherein the determining is based on a two-dimensional search in a time-frequency map and wherein the determining comprises: a.) eliminating a unique word modulation from the digitally sampled signal to produce a plurality of vectors each having L un-modulated samples at intervals of 1/Rs, wherein L is a length, in symbols, of the unique word; b.) counting the plurality of vectors using a first counter and associating each of the plurality of vectors with a time index corresponding to a count value of the first counter; c.) summing groups of N adjacent samples within each of the plurality of vectors to produce decimated vectors of L/N samples, wherein N is a positive integer; d.) padding the decimated vectors with time-domain zeroes to produce padded vectors of P ∗ (L/N) samples, wherein P ≥ 1; e.) performing a Fourier Transform, FT, on the padded vectors to produce transformed vectors; f.) counting FT samples of the transformed vectors using a second counter and associating each of the FT samples with a frequency index corresponding to a count value of the second counter; g.) calculating at least one metric of magnitude for each sample in the transformed vectors; and h.) storing the at least one metric of magnitude at a storage address in a memory, wherein the storage address is determined in accordance with the time index and the frequency index associated with a sample corresponding to the at least one metric of magnitude. receiving a modulated signal comprising a framing property marked by a unique word comprising a predefined sequence of symbols; producing a digitally sampled signal corresponding to the modulated signal, the digitally sampled signal having a sampling rate of Na ∗ Rs, wherein Rs is a symbol rate of the modulated signal and Na is a number of samples per symbol; determining a frequency offset associated with the modulated signal and a location of the unique word within a frame of the modulated signal, wherein the determining is based on a two-dimensional search in a time-frequency map and wherein the determining comprises: a.) eliminating a unique word modulation from the digitally sampled signal to produce a plurality of vectors each having L un-modulated samples at intervals of 1/Rs, wherein L is a length, in symbols, of the unique word; b.) counting the plurality of vectors using a first counter and associating each of the plurality of vectors with a time index corresponding to a count value of the first counter; c.) summing groups of N adjacent samples within each of the plurality of vectors to produce decimated vectors of L/N samples, wherein N is a positive integer; d.) padding the decimated vectors with time-domain zeroes to produce padded vectors of P ∗ (L/N) samples, wherein P ≥ 1; e.) performing a Fourier Transform, FT, on the padded vectors to produce transformed vectors; f.) counting FT samples of the transformed vectors using a second counter and associating each of the FT samples with a frequency index corresponding to a count value of the second counter; g.) calculating at least one metric of magnitude for each sample in the transformed vectors; and h.) storing the at least one metric of magnitude at a storage address in a memory, wherein the storage address is determined in accordance with the time index and the frequency index associated with a sample corresponding to the at least one metric of magnitude. a.) eliminating a unique word modulation from the digitally sampled signal to produce a plurality of vectors each having L un-modulated samples at intervals of 1/Rs, wherein L is a length, in symbols, of the unique word; b.) counting the plurality of vectors using a first counter and associating each of the plurality of vectors with a time index corresponding to a count value of the first counter; c.) summing groups of N adjacent samples within each of the plurality of vectors to produce decimated vectors of L/N samples, wherein N is a positive integer; d.) padding the decimated vectors with time-domain zeroes to produce padded vectors of P ∗ (L/N) samples, wherein P ≥ 1; e.) performing a Fourier Transform, FT, on the padded vectors to produce transformed vectors; f.) counting FT samples of the transformed vectors using a second counter and associating each of the FT samples with a frequency index corresponding to a count value of the second counter; g.) calculating at least one metric of magnitude for each sample in the transformed vectors; and h.) storing the at least one metric of magnitude at a storage address in a memory, wherein the storage address is determined in accordance with the time index and the frequency index associated with a sample corresponding to the at least one metric of magnitude.