Implementing a physical layer automatic repeat request for a subscriber unit

A base station comprising circuitry configured to use a first hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) to provide data blocks for transmission by a second hybrid ARQ; and wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine channel quality of subcarriers in an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) frequency set; wherein the circuitry is further configured to transmit the provided data blocks by the second hybrid ARQ; wherein each second hybrid ARQ transmission comprises turbo coded data of at least one of the data blocks and an appended error check sequence (ECS); wherein each second hybrid ARQ transmission is an OFDM signal; wherein the second hybrid ARQ is configured to retransmit using adaptive modulation and coding; wherein the second hybrid ARQ transmissions are sent over subcarriers of the OFDM frequency set and the transmission subcarriers are selected in response to the channel quality of the OFDM frequency set; and wherein the selected subcarriers for at least one second hybrid ARQ transmission are not contiguous subcarriers.