—In this paper, we propose two novel pre–equalization schemes for multiple–input single–output (MISO) direct–sequence ultra–wideband (DS–UWB) systems with pre–Rake combining and symbol–by–symbol detection. The first pre–equalization filter (PEF) scheme employs one PEF per transmit antenna, whereas in the second, simplified PEF (S–PEF) scheme all transmit antennas share the same PEF. For both schemes, the optimum finite impulse response (FIR) and infinite impulse response (IIR) PEFs are calculated based on the minimum mean squared error (MMSE) criterion. Our approach is sufficiently general to include also complexity–reduced versions of pre–Rake combining that employ a limited number of Rake fingers. We show that under certain conditions the S–PEF scheme achieves the same performance as the more complex PEF scheme. Moreover, our simulation results show that the proposed PEF schemes achieve significant performance gains over pure pre–Rake combining...