A transmitter, channel coder, and method for coding and transmitting a sequence of symbols in a digital communication system utilizing soft pilot symbols. In one embodiment, the transmitter transmits a set of soft pilot symbols with higher reliability than the remaining symbols in the sequence by modulating the soft pilot symbols with a lower order modulation such as BPSK or QPSK while modulating the remaining symbols with a higher order modulation such as 16 QAM or 64 QAM. The transmitter shares the modulation type and location (time/frequency/code) of the soft pilot symbols with a receiver. Unlike traditional fixed pilots, the soft pilots still carry some data. Additionally, the soft pilots are particularly helpful in establishing the amplitude reference essential in demodulating the higher order modulation symbols. In another embodiment, soft pilot symbols are inserted by low-level puncturing of channel encoded bits and replacing the punctured bits with known bit patterns.