The present invention selects a space-time encoding mode to use when transmitting with spatial diversity based on the receive diversity associated with a receiver device and the quality of the transmission channels based on information fed back from the receiver device. The selectable space-time encoding modes are preferably space-time transmit diversity encoding and a version of BLAST-type encoding. Further, modulation modes, error encoding rates, or a combination thereof, may also be based on the quality of the transmission channels and the available diversity of the receiver device.