A signal detection circuit for receiving a digital baseband signal comprising an amplitude modulated symbol stream of Logic 0 symbols and Logic 1 symbols, each of the Logic 0 and Logic 1 symbols comprising S sequential samples, wherein the amplitude modulated symbol stream contains a preamble of N known symbols preceding a plurality of user data symbols. The signal detection circuit comprises: A) a signal mean determination circuit that receives G samples from the digital baseband signal and determines an amplitude mean value associated with the amplitude modulated symbol stream; and B) a correlation circuit that detects the preamble.