A method for self-calibrating a vector modulator is disclosed, including the step of pre-distortion coefficients in dependence upon an in-phase signal, a quadrature signal, and an output envelope of an RF signal, and further comprising the steps of transforming a value representative of an output envelope represented in a nonlinear domain into a value representative of the output envelope represented in a linear domain, determining a parameter vector x as a solution of a linear equation within the linear domain, and determining the pre-distortion coefficients from the parameter vector x. Further described is a compensating quadrature modulator for self-calibrating a vector modulation process, the compensating quadrature modulator comprising an I-signal transmit chain for pre-distorting and transmitting an in-phase signal, a Q-signal transmit chain for pre-distorting and transmitting a quadrature signal, as well as a digital signal processor coupled to the I- and Q-signal transmit chains, and providing pre-distortion coefficients.