A method, system, base station and wireless terminal are provided for transmission of a set of mixed pilots that includes both common and dedicated pilots. The method includes selecting a number D of dedicated pilots having regard to performance of the communication link, D≧0, selecting a first pre-coder for pre-coding D dedicated pilots based on some criteria, performing a first pre-coding of the D dedicated pilots with the first pre-coder to produce a set of pre-coded dedicated pilots, performing a second pre-coding of the set of pre-coded dedicated pilots and a set of common pilots to produce a set of mixed pilots, and transmitting data from the transmitter on the communication link with the set of mixed pilots.