1. A user equipment apparatus, comprising: at least two high speed packet access receivers comprising a first receiver and a second receiver configured to receive one or more user signals dedicated to the user equipment; at least two channel decoders comprising a first channel decoder and a second channel decoder, wherein, in a multi-carrier receive operation mode, the first receiver and the first channel decoder are configured to process a first signal of the one or more user signals transmitted over a first frequency carrier and the second receiver and the second channel decoder are configured to process a second signal of the one or more user signals transmitted over a second, different frequency carrier, and wherein, in a receive diversity operation mode, the first receiver is configured to process a first version of a signal of the one or more user signals received by a first receive antenna to output a first soft decision bitstream, the second receiver is configured to process a second version of the same signal received by a second receive antenna to output a second soft decision bitstream, and a combiner is configured to combine the outputs of the first receiver and the second receiver as a weighted combination of the first soft decision bitstream and the second soft decision bitstream; a switch coupled between an output of the second receiver and the combiner, wherein in the multi-carrier receive operation mode the switch is operable to disable combining of signals from the first and second receivers and to pass a signal from the second receiver to the second channel decoder, and wherein in the receiver diversity operation mode the switch is operable to enable combining of signals at the combiner from the first and second receivers; and a control unit configured to control the second receiver to operate on the second frequency carrier in the multi-carrier receive operation mode when there is an active multi-carrier high speed packet access connection at the first receiver or the second receiver and to operate on the first frequency carrier in the receive diversity operation mode when there is no active multi-carrier high speed packet access connection, and further configured to control the operation of the switch.