Radio receiver and channel estimator

The present invention is related to a Rake receiver (R 1 ) for receiving a radio signal and to a searcher (S 8 a, S 8 b) for estimating the delay profile of one or more radio links. The searcher includes means for estimating delay profiles in separate windows. The searcher is arranged for being switched into a single window mode or alternatively into a multiple window mode. In single window mode the delay profiles of separate radio links are estimated in the windows, while in multiple window mode two or more windows are allocated adjacent in time for estimating the delay profile of the same radio link. Thereby, the use of the resources of the searcher can be adapted to the radio environments in which the searcher will be used. The Rake receiver comprises fingers that are grouped into two sets. Within a set of fingers the propagation paths are time aligned. The output from the two set of fingers are time aligned and then combined.