The structure of a time-multiplexed physical channel is used to time inter-frequency or inter-system search excursions. A mobile station that receives an instruction to perform a search excursion prepares for the search excursion by detecting the first radio frame of a message frame. Transport format combination indicator bits are extracted from the first radio frame and stored. After the search excursion is performed, the mobile station recalls the stored indicator bits and uses the indicator bits to decode other radio frames of the message frame.