A system and method for deciding whether to initiate an idle handoff in a wireless communications system is disclosed. A mobile station having an integrated chip and software instructions executed by that chip obtain samples at first and second times of the pilot signals radiated by first and second base stations. A determination is then made whether to initiate an idle handoff based upon a comparison of the total strengths of the second time samples and a position-weighting term with a design constant. The position-weighting term accounts for the change in position of the mobile station relative to the first and second base stations in between the first and second sample times. The position-weighting term may itself be weighted to account for the strength of the earliest arriving multipath component of the first and second pilots relative to the total strength of the first and second pilots.