A process for equalizing streams of OFDM subcarrier data computes the noise variance for each stream, and forms a stream weighting coefficient by equalizing the noise variance, such that for a first stream having a noise variance .sigma..sub.1 and a second stream having a noise variance of .sigma..sub.2, the first stream is scaled by .times..sigma..sigma..sigma. ##EQU00001## and the second stream is scaled by .times..sigma..sigma..sigma. ##EQU00002##