Abstract: An encoder (100) for processing an input signal to produce a ternary coded data stream having supressed DC comprises circuitry, and its associated methodology, including an arrangement (120,130,150) for augmenting the data stream with a compensating set of code symbols as determined by the number of positive and negative code symbols in the data stream as well as all prior compensating code symbols. A decoder (200) processes the received signal to extract the symbols in the data stream corresponding to the input signal. In order to achieve a preselected end-to-end transmission rate with the encoder-decoder combination, the rate of the signal propagated between encoder and decoder is increased to compensate for the appended code symbols.