A method for adaptively learning a sparse impulse response (100) of a continuous channel to which an input signal (x(t)) is applied and which delivers an output signal (y(t)), comprising the following steps: low-pass filtering the input signal and the output signal and obtain a filtered input signal (xF(t)) and a filtered output signal (yF(t)) sampling the filtered input signal and the filtered output signal with a sampling rate below the Nyquist rate and obtaining a sampled input signal (xS(t)) and a sampled output signal (yS(t)) retrieving from the sampled input signal (xS(t)) and the sampled output signal (yS(t)) an estimate (400) of the sparse impulse response (100) of the continuous channel.