A method and apparatus are provided for feedback for closed-loop transmitting with multiple transmit antenna elements and multiple receive antenna elements. A base station includes a codebook containing sets of weightings for the multiple transmit antenna elements, with each set of weightings identified by an index and the codebook known to the base station and a served mobile station (MS). The base station pre-codes pilot signals using a precoding matrix, preferably a unitary matrix, to produce pre-coded pilot signals, which precoding matrix may or may not be known to the MS and which precoding matrix may or may not be included in the codebook. The base station then transmits the pre-coded pilot signals to the MS via the multiple transmit antenna elements and, in response, receives an index to a set of weightings in the codebook for use in a subsequent transmission of a data stream.