This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract. A method of improving block turbo decoder performance that comprises receiving soft input information corresponding to a first set of constituent codes of a block product code (900), scaling soft extrinsic information from a second set of constituent codes of the block product code (800), processing the scaled soft extrinsic information and the soft input information to produce soft output information suitable for a soft-input soft-output decoder (900), and performing one or more of: modifying encoded bit positions of the block product code, modifying decoded bit positions of a the block product code, permuting decoding parameters of the block product code to effect a preferred decoding order (500), detecting cases where a number of test patterns is insufficient to decode the soft output information and thereafter providing a different number of test patterns suitable for decoding the soft output information (1400), and adapting the number of test patterns in the soft-input soft-output decoder (1600).