A mobile station receives system time information from a source base transceiver station (BTS) in a spread spectrum communication system. The mobile station estimates a distance between the mobile station and the source BTS. The mobile station calculates a propagation delay based on the estimated distance. The mobile station develops a propagation-delay-adjusted time reference based on the system time information and the calculated propagation delay. The mobile station uses the propagation-delay-adjusted time reference to search for a target pseudonoise (PN) offset corresponding to a target BTS in the spread spectrum communication system. The mobile station may be closer to the target BTS than the source BTS.