Receiver comprising at least two receive branches

A receiver comprising at least two receive branches (a, b) for receiving transmitted signals affected by different transmission characteristics, each said branch comprising a respective receive circuit (5a, 5b), and a combining arrangement (10) for combining the receive branches (a, b),

• characterized in that each receive branch (a,b) comprises a matched filter (1a, 1b) having a respective output signal and an arrangement (6a, 6b) for forming an estimated impulse response (H1, H2) for that branch and an appropriate autocorrelation function (A1, A2) for the estimated impulse response (H1, H2) of that receive branch (a,b), and
• in that the combining arrangement (10) comprises means for weighting the matched filter output signals (z.sub.a, z.sub.b) with respective first weight factors, means for weighting the autocorrelation functions (z.sub.a, z.sub.b) with respective second weight factors, a first adder circuit (11) for adding together the matched filter output signals (z.sub.a, z.sub.b) which have been weighted with said first weight factors to form a first sum (S1), a second adder circuit (12) for adding together the receive branch autocorrelation functions (A1, A2) weighted with the second weight factors to form a second sum (S2), and an equalizer (3,7) for evaluating the first and second sums (S1, S2), the respective weight factors being approximately inversely proportional to an instantaneous noise power (.sigma..sub.1.sup.2, .sigma..sub.2.sup.2) in each receive branch (a,b).