An example application of the invention is directed to a mobile receiver searching pilot signals in a CDMA-based radiotelephone communications system. The receiver processes received pilot signals by first decimating those pilot signals that have a search window length that is greater than a threshold number of chips, into a plurality of sub-windows. The other pilot signals and the sub-windows are then searched using a common prioritization criteria. More specific implementations of this approach permit each search of this type to take a fixed amount of time, thereby making scheduling calculations easy to implement. Moreover, such implementations provide for all pilots to be searched equally often irrespective of window sizes, and for less likely candidates for idle handoff (pilots with longer window sizes) not to be given precedence over more likely idle handoff candidates. Also, as search results are accumulated, the amount of unsearched PN space within a window decreases, thereby decreasing the probability of finding a strong pilot and increasing the ability for more intelligent scheduling.