A system is disclosed for use in a wireless communication system to provide an estimated pilot signal. The system includes a receiver and a front-end processing and despreading component in electronic communication with the receiver for despreading a CDMA signal. A pilot estimation component is in electronic communication with the front-end processing and despreading component for estimating an original pilot signal using a pilot estimator that includes a Kalman filter to produce a pilot estimate. The Kalman filter is determined through use of a prediction error method based on an innovations representation of the original pilot signal. A demodulation component is in electronic communication with the pilot estimation component and the front-end processing and despreading component for providing demodulated data symbols.