A system and method for improved data transmission on a wireless link to a remote receiving node includes a communication device for converting packets to RF at a physical data rate, an antenna apparatus having a plurality of antenna configurations for transmitting the RF, and a processor for selecting the antenna configuration and the physical data rate based on whether the remote receiving node indicated reception of the data transmission. The processor may determine a table of success ratios for each antenna configuration and may rank each antenna configuration by the success ratio. The processor may transmit with an unused antenna configuration to probe the unused antenna configuration and update the table of success ratios. Similarly, the processor may maintain a table of effective user data rates, rank each physical data rate by the effective user data rate and probe unused physical data rates to update the table.