Patent ID: 8107558

Claim:
A method for use with a signal receiver having a dynamic range characterized by a certain saturation level and comprising a calculating circuit ( 50 ) that comprises a sample calculator circuit ( 51 ), a divider circuit ( 52 ) coupled to said sample calculator circuit ( 51 ), an amplitude calculator circuit ( 53 ) coupled to said divider circuit ( 52 ), and a memory unit ( 54 ) associated with said calculating circuit ( 50 ); the method for operating said calculating circuit ( 50 ) to provide to said signal receiver an actual amplitude of a digitized signal received by said signal receiver, the signal having a magnitude A, of the actual amplitude equal to or greater than a value of the certain saturation level of the dynamic range of said signal receiver, the method comprising: selecting a predetermined time interval; by using said sample calculator circuit ( 51 ), calculating a total number N tot of samples of the received digitized signal within said predetermined time interval; by using said sample calculator circuit ( 51 ) calculating a number N s of samples of the received digitized signal within said predetermined time interval with the amplitude equal to the saturation level; by using said divider circuit ( 52 ), calculating a ratio R s between the number N s of the samples with the amplitude value equal to the saturation level and the total number N tot of the samples; and applying a predetermined relationship between said magnitude of the amplitude and said ratio R s for determining said magnitude of the actual amplitude; providing said output signal representing said actual amplitude to said signal receiver.