A mobile station transmits a message by transmitting an access probe that includes the message preceded by a preamble. The mobile station selects the length of the preamble from among a first preamble length and a second preamble length. The second preamble length is greater than the first preamble length. The mobile station makes the selection based, at least in part, on the distance between the mobile station and the mobile station's primary base transceiver station (BTS). If the distance is greater than a threshold distance, the mobile station selects the second preamble length. If the distance is less than the threshold distance, the mobile station selects the first preamble length, provided that an idle handoff to a neighboring BTS that is more than the threshold distance away is unlikely.