Abstract: Automatic control of transmitted power of a transmitted signal at a local transmitter in response to intermittent signal quality reports from a remote receiver about a received communication signal originating as the transmitted communication signal is provided by distinguishing between improving link conditions and degrading link conditions and at least derating a scheduled signal power change if there are changes in the signal quality reports, such as if the power change is scheduled to occur too soon after a previous signal power change. A fast attack power increase and slow decay power decrease may also be employed. The method is designed to maintain signal quality (e.g. distant Es/No) in the presence of these variations and uncertainties, for time-varying link conditions that have a fade rate range from less than 0.01 dB/s to more than 1 dB/s.