A novel and improved method and apparatus for signal acquisition in a wireless telecommunication system having large transmission delay uncertainty is described. A terminal first acquires the forward link signal from a hub and extracts timing information from that forward link signal. Using the timing information the terminal estimates the time at which a next search window takes place during an access slot, and the time and pseudorandom code state necessary to transmit an access probe so as to arrive at during the search window assuming the terminal is located a maximum distance from the hub. The terminal proceeds to transmit additional access probes at times occurring one access slot period plus a delta time interval after the previous transmission. The delta time interval has a duration less than that of a search window associated with each access slot. Each access probe is processed with various transmission codes the states of which are incremented by an access slot period for each access probe transmitted.