The receiver portion of a UWB wireless device is altered by replacing analog-to-digital circuitry with a simple energy detection circuit. In embodiments of the invention, the coding methodology of a transmitter is altered to support the simplified receiver configuration. For example, instead of coding the data to be sent in the phase of the UWB signal, the data is encoded in a binary fashion in discrete frequency subbands of the UWB signal. Although this may reduce the usable bandwidth of the channel, it also decreases the complexity and power consumption of UWB devices. In another embodiment of the invention, a UWB device is able to select a transmission mode (BPSK or Energy Coding) based on its environment. Moreover, in a further embodiment of the invention, receiving devices may switch between coding modes based on the capabilities of a remote transmitter and/or a peer receiver.