Abstract: In a TDM communications system comprising a base station and a number of outstations, a marshalling signal enables a newly connected outstation to determine the timing of its transmission bursts A detector circuit for recovering the marshalling signal incorporates comparators whose thresholds are adjusted to the high and low levels of the normal data signal. The marshalling signal is recovered from one or other of the comparators according to whether a high or low normal data signal is received, this condition being determined by a third comparator whose threshold is adjusted midway between the high and low level. This allows the marshalling signal to be recovered continuously without interrupting normal data transmission from the outstation.