An adaptive dc compensation technique (100) eliminates dc error for both digital and constant envelope modulation protocols (108). For analog modulation, a dc averaging technique utilizes piece-wise continuous dc averaging (110) that calculates discrete dc error values over a variable number of samples (112) and updates the dc compensation value as a fixed value for a specified sample length (114). The piece-wise "update-and-hold" technique (110) results in a pseudo high pass filter response with an equivalent corner. For digital modulation, a continuous high pass filter section of the receiver is enabled (120).