Abstract: Techniques for selectively filtering a received signal in order to reduce false alarms in the detection of a synchronization signal are described. In one design, frequency characteristics of a received signal may be estimated. Large spectral peaks in the estimated frequency characteristics may be detected. Filter coefficients for a pseudo-whitening filter may then be derived based on the detected large spectral peaks. To derive these filter coefficients, a filter gain for each of multiple frequency bins may be set to a predetermined value if a large spectral peak is not detected or a value inversely related to the large spectral peak if detected. The filter gains for all frequency bins may be transformed to time domain and further processed to obtain the filter coefficients. The received signal may be filtered based on the filter coefficients to attenuate the large spectral peaks. The filtered signal may be processed to detect for the synchronization signal.