A method is provided of detecting one of a set of preamble sequences in a spread signal. The method includes: (a) correlating the received spread signal with sequences of a first orthogonal Gold code (OGC) set in accordance with a first fast transform to provide a preamble signal; (b) correlating the preamble signal with the set of preamble sequences in accordance with a second fast transform to generate a set of index values; (c) forming a decision statistic based on the set of index values: and (d) selecting, as the detected one of the set of preamble sequences, a preamble sequence corresponding to the decision statistic. Step (c) comprises the steps of: 1) forming an initial decision statistic based on the relative maximum index of the set of index values; 2) selecting the signal generated by the preamble sequence combined with the preamble signal corresponding to the initial decision statistic; 3) adjusting, in one or more of amplitude and phase, the signal selected in step 2); and 4) forming the decision statistic based on the adjusted signal.