Abstract: A communications station (10) couples a bidirectional input-output signal path (16') to two unidirectional signal paths; a transmit signal path (12') and a receive signal path (14'), using a controllable hybrid (20). A feedback control system in the station minimizes the amount of transmit signal appearing at the receive output port (24) of the hybrid (20). The control system spreads the spectrum of a pilot signal (40) by means of a biphase modulator (46) and a pseudorandom generator (42) to produce a spread-spectrum pilot, which is added, in a summer 30, to the transmit signal. The spread-spectrum pilot signal covers the bandwidth of the information signal, and is reflected in an amount and with a phase which depends upon the relative impedance presented to the hybrid (20) by the bidirectional signal path (16').