Improved apparatus for a radio communication network having a multiplicity of mobile transceiver units selectively in communication with a plurality of base transceiver units which communicate with one or two host computers for storage and manipulation of data collected by bar code scanners or other collection means associated with the mobile transceiver units. The radio network is adaptive in that in order to compensate for the wide range of operating conditions a set of variable network parameters are exchanged between transceivers in the network. These parameters define optimized communication on the network under current network conditions. Examples of such parameters include: the length and frequency of the spreading code in direct-sequence spread spectrum communications; the hop frame length, coding, and interleaving in frequency-hopping spread spectrum communications; the method of source encoding used; and the data packet size in a network using data segmentation. The invention is preferably to be applicable as an upgrade of an existing data capture system wherein a large number of hand-held transceiver units operate over an extensive area to gather data in various places, requiring the use of multiple base stations. In a variety of such installations such as warehouse facilities, distribution centers, and retail establishments, it may be advantageous to utilize not only multiple bases capable of communication with a single host, but with multiple hosts as well.