Methods and devices are provided for MIMO OFDM transmitter and receivers having odd and/even numbers of transmit antennas. Various methods for pre-coding information bits before space time coding (STC) are described for enabling transmission of information bits over all antennas. Methods of decoding received signals that have been pre-coded and STC coded are also provided by embodiments of the invention. Pilot patterns for downlink and uplink transmission between a base station and one or more wireless terminals for three transmit antenna transmitters are also provided. Variable rate codes are provided that combine various fixed rate codes in a manner that results in codes whose rates are dependent on all the various fixed rate codes that are combined