Systems and methods related to the detection of incoming wireless signals. An antenna array is synthesized by having a single antenna, coupled to a receiver, spatially translated along an arbitrary trajectory. As the antenna is being spatially translated, a data processing means samples the incoming signal based on a clock signal provided by a system clock. By sampling the incoming signal at different times at different spatial locations on the arbitrary trajectory, the system acts as a synthetic antenna array. The different samplings of the incoming signal at different times and positions provide signal diversity gain as well as different readings which can be used to detect an incoming signal. The invention is applicable to detecting a wireless communications signal or a GNSS signal under various conditions. The system may include at least one sensor which can provide data for use in calculating data related to the arbitrary trajectory.