In one embodiment the present invention include systems and methods for synchronizing wireless communication systems. In one embodiment, a baseband processor includes a reference frequency for synchronizing processing of received data. The baseband processor may detect received data and determine frequency hopping sequences to program a frequency synthesizer. The baseband processor may synchronize the synthesizer's frequency changes to receive incoming data. Symbols received by the system may be detected and used to start the reference frequency. In one embodiment, the reference frequency has a period equal to the symbol period. Cross-correlators may be used to detect frequency hopping patterns. Clusters of results from the cross-correlators may be analyzed and the results used to control timing of the system.