This paper describes an automatic threshold decision using a maximum mismatched correlation value in the direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS) system. For received PN codes with different single-to-noise ratio (SNR), this scheme is able to detect a desired threshold value in the search mode, i.e. a maximum mismstched correlation value, so that value is utilized as a threshold for the verification mode. Performance of the proposed scheme in both the additive white gaussian noise (AWGN) and frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels is analyzed through the Monte Carlo simulation. And hardware implementation of this scheme using a DSP processor is demonstrated. The proposed acquisition shceme is compared to the conventional constant threshold (CT) scheme, and significant improvement of performance is shown. Analysis of system performance in the verification mode is presented, and key quantities such as the false alarm probability and the detection probability are derived in a AWGN channel.