In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for characterizing electrical characteristics of a communication channel between a transmitter of a first information handling resource and a receiver of a second information handling resource may include receiving a test signal at the receiver from the transmitter during an in-situ characterization mode of the second information handling resource, converting the test signal into a discrete-time digital signal representing the test signal, generating a discrete-time finite difference function comprising a first derivative of the discrete-time digital signal, transforming the discrete-time finite difference function into a frequency-domain transform of the discrete-time finite difference function.