A communications system for receiving a modulated signal that carries encoded communications data, comprising: an adaptive filter having an input adapted to receive the modulated signal carrying the encoded communications data, a finite or infinite impulse response and at least one non-adaptive filter tap and a plurality of adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and weighted coefficients; a summer adapted to perform summation of the output of the plurality of said at least one non-adaptive filter tap and said adaptive filter taps (46a-d); an input power measurement circuit adapted to measure power of the modulated signal received by the input; an output power measurement circuit, adapted to measure power of the output signal of the summer and positioned at the output of the summer; an input normalizing circuit adapted to obtain sample values from the modulated signal received from said input; an output normalizing circuit adapted to obtain sample values from the output of said summer; an automatic tap order selection circuit connected to the adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and configured to select a number of adaptive filter taps (46a-d) based upon the power measurements of the power measurement circuits (55a, 55b) and the modulation scheme used by the communications system, and a variable delay circuit disposed between the adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and the at least one non-adaptive filter tap adapted to vary the delay of the modulated signal received by said input normalizing circuit to adjust spacing of multipath introduced by the adaptive filter based on the selected number of adaptive filter taps (46a-d), said variable delay circuit being responsive to an amount of a multipath channel interference and multipath tolerances measured at a demodulator of a receiving modem, wherein said demodulator is adapted to demodulate the output signal of said adaptive filter; a decoder adapted to receive the output signal from the demodulator and to decode it to obtain the communications data. an adaptive filter having an input adapted to receive the modulated signal carrying the encoded communications data, a finite or infinite impulse response and at least one non-adaptive filter tap and a plurality of adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and weighted coefficients; a summer adapted to perform summation of the output of the plurality of said at least one non-adaptive filter tap and said adaptive filter taps (46a-d); an input power measurement circuit adapted to measure power of the modulated signal received by the input; an output power measurement circuit, adapted to measure power of the output signal of the summer and positioned at the output of the summer; input adapted to receive the modulated signal carrying the encoded communications data, a finite or infinite impulse response and at least one non-adaptive filter tap and a plurality of adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and weighted coefficients; a summer adapted to perform summation of the output of the plurality of said at least one non-adaptive filter tap and said adaptive filter taps (46a-d); an input power measurement circuit adapted to measure power of the modulated signal received by the input; an output power measurement circuit, adapted to measure power of the output signal of the summer and positioned at the output of the summer; an input normalizing circuit adapted to obtain sample values from the modulated signal received from said input; an output normalizing circuit adapted to obtain sample values from the output of said summer; an automatic tap order selection circuit connected to the adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and configured to select a number of adaptive filter taps (46a-d) based upon the power measurements of the power measurement circuits (55a, 55b) and the modulation scheme used by the communications system, and a variable delay circuit disposed between the adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and the at least one non-adaptive filter tap adapted to vary the delay of the modulated signal received by said input normalizing circuit to adjust spacing of multipath introduced by the adaptive filter based on the selected number of adaptive filter taps (46a-d), said variable delay circuit being responsive to an amount of a multipath channel interference and multipath tolerances measured at a demodulator of a receiving modem, wherein said demodulator is adapted to demodulate the output signal of said adaptive filter; a decoder adapted to receive the output signal from the demodulator and to decode it to obtain the communications data.