A communications system includes a carrier recovery module that determines a carrier frequency offset of an input signal. A rotator module rotates the input signal to minimize the carrier frequency offset and generates a compensated signal. A correlator module correlates the compensated signal with a unique word to obtain a timing correction. An equalizer module equalizes the compensated signal based on the timing correction and generates an equalized signal. The carrier recovery module includes a burst detector module that detects a burst in response to a preamble of the input signal and an average detector to set a gain of a programmable gain amplifier (PGA). The average detector is disabled during burst search by the burst detector module and enabled at a beginning of each burst, outputs burst data to a digital signal processor when the average detector is enabled, and does not output the burst data to the digital signal processor when the average detector is disabled.