A cane harvester base cutter assembly includes a gearbox provided with an upper horizontal section that joins a pair of transversely spaced cylindrical wells. Also, the HDD combines G-list entries when a discontinuity count and a G-list entry density are both over a threshold. The method includes programming a first-side of the target cell to have a Vt level not lower than the preset PV level; reading a Vt level of a second-side of the target cell and accordingly obtaining a corrected PV level corresponding to the first-side; and programming the first-side of the target cell to have a Vt level not lower than the corresponding corrected PV level. The process then calculates reliability metrics from a symbol received through a second spreading code channel using the reliability metrics for the most probable candidates.