A radio transmitter with IQ-modulator error compensation includes a homodyne observation receiver (42) producing a first real baseband (S5) signal from a real radio frequency signal (S2). A real-value extracting element (44) and a down-sampler (46) convert a complex baseband signal (S1) into a second real baseband signal. An adapter (40) determines parameters controlling an IQ-error compensator (12) by minimizing the error between the two real baseband signals. In a preferred embodiment he transmitter also includes a phase shifter (56) providing three different phase shifts to compensate for the fact that the homodyne observation receiver produces a real and not a complex signal.