A technique for detecting a physical random access channel (PRACH) signal includes demasking a received signal with a demasking signal. In this case, the demasking removes a PRACH root index component from the received signal. A fast Fourier transform is performed on the demasked received signal to provide a time-domain signal. At least three peaks of the time-domain signal from all antennas are then power combined. Finally, a determination is made as to whether a preamble index for the PRACH signal matches a known preamble index based on an output power of the time-domain signal at the at least three peaks.