A method and apparatus for reducing transient impacts of beam switching in a switched beam antenna system are disclosed, a switch beam antenna system generates a plurality of beams in a predefined beam pattern and switches the current beam position to one of the plurality of predefined beams in accordance with measurement results for each of the beams, quality of signals is periodically measured for each of the plurality of predefined beams, and the best beam is determined, the current beam is switched to either the best beam or an intermediate beam in accordance with the separation between the best beam and the current beam.