Techniques are described for space-time block coding for single-carrier block transmissions over frequency selective multipath fading channels. Techniques are described that achieve a maximum diversity of order N.sub.tN.sub.r(L+1) in rich scattering environments, where N.sub.t(N.sub.r) is the number of transmit (receive) antennas, and L is the order of the finite impulse response (FIR) channels. The techniques may include parsing a stream of information-bearing symbols to form blocks of K symbols, precoding the symbols to form blocks having J symbols, and collecting consecutive N.sub.S blocks. The techniques may further include applying a permutation matrix to the N.sub.S blocks, generating a space-time block coded matrix having N.sub.t rows that are communicated through a wireless communication medium. The receiver complexity is comparable to single antenna transmissions, and the exact Viterbi's algorithm can be applied for maximum-likelihood (ML) optimal decoding.