This invention describes a method for a component/system level design of an adaptive radio receiver in electronic communication devices (e.g., mobile phones) by providing an automatic digital tuning of a voltage controlled oscillator of a phase locked loop (PLL) instead of a prior-art pre-calibration. A normal PLL for frequency locking is used which does not need any additional pre-calibration blocks to account for different temperatures or any other extreme conditions. If the current switch setting does not allow the locking, i.e., the VCO output signal frequency is still far away from a reference frequency, the PLL "coarse" tuning will cause the switch condition to change and bring the frequency within a reasonable range using an additional phase detector PD2 loop.