A method is provided for operating a cellular radio communication system with a base station, which may be switched between an operating state without closed-loop antenna diversity and an operating state with closed-loop antenna diversity, emitting a downlink signal with a weighting vector and a user station, for receiving the downlink signal and transmitting an uplink signal to the base station, delivering back-coupling information to the base station in the operating state with closed-loop antenna diversity, representing a determined weighting vector. On transition of the radio communication system into the operating state with closed-loop antenna diversity, the user station delivers back-coupling information, representing a weighting vector determined and known before the transition into the operating state with closed-loop antenna diversity, to the base station until a current weighting vector is determined by measurement, and then delivers the back-coupling information representing the current weighting vector.