In this paper we propose simple schemes which reduce the peak-to-average po
wer ratio (PAPR) of the OFDM-CDMA signals. The statistical behavior of the
peak power in the OFDM-CDMA signals is first examined by computer simulatio
ns, employing the two orthogonal sets of spreading sequences, namely, Walsh
-Hadamard sequences and Golay complementary sequences. It is shown that for
small number of active users or uplink system, Golay complementary sequenc
es yield much lower PAPR than Walsh-Hadamard sequences, and for large numbe
r of active users, Walsh-Hadamard sequences eventually becomes better A sim
ple scrambling scheme is introduced, which may result in considerable peak
power reduction in the case of small number of the active users. For the do
wnlink system, further reduction of the peak power can be achieved by a sim
ple adaptive scheme based on the selection of the set of the spreading sequ
ences.