A GPS receiver circuit (300) for reducing insertion loss. The receiver circuit (300) includes a switch (304) for diverting input signals between a filtered pathway (312) and a short circuit pathway (310) to an amplifier (314). The amplifier (314) output feeds an automatic gain controller (316) that senses a noise level in the output of the amplifier (314) and adjusts a gain of the amplifier (314) in response to the noise level. The receiver circuit (300) also includes a threshold detector (306) with an input coupled to the output of the automatic gain controller (316) and an output coupled to the switch (304) for selecting between the filtered pathway (312) and the short circuit pathway (310), thereby removing the filter (312) from the signal path if not needed.