Abstract: An anti-saturation circuit controls the gain of a variable-gain element in the front-end section of a receiver, responsive to a desired signal strength indicated by an indicator signal. The gain of the variable-gain element varies monotonically over a certain range, being reduced as the desired signal strength increases, in order to avoid intermodulation of the desired signal with an interfering signal. If the receiver also has an automatic-gain-control circuit, the automatic-gain-control signal is adjusted to compensate for the changing gain of the variable-gain element.