Patent ID: 6961572

Claim:
A method for a base site to initiate a CDMA-dispatch soft handoff comprising the steps of: establishing a first outbound link for a dispatch call; transmitting the dispatch call via the first outbound link; establishing an inbound link with a mobile station (MS) for the dispatch call; determining based on a signal quality of the in-bound link that the MS should begin a soft handoff; determining at least one base site of a plurality of adjacent base sites for the MS to begin a soft handoff with; and indicating to the MS an identity of the at least one base site and an identity of an outbound link for the dispatch call at the at least one base site, wherein the step of indicating the identity of the at least one base site and the identity of an outbound link comprises signaling in one of the manners of signaling that are included in the group consisting of signaling in-band on the first outbound link and signaling via a paging channel.