Abstract: Forming a channel estimate for a communications channel in a communication system, which a receiver that receives over the communications channel signals including pilot symbols, control symbols, and a set of data symbols. A pilot-only based channel estimate is calculated using the pilot symbols in a first pass through a portion of the control channel. Then pseudo pilot symbols are generated on a basis of a control channel, and then are used to refine the pilot-only based channel estimate. A set of data symbols is then weighted using the refined channel estimate, and the weighted set of symbols is output to a decoder stage.