Maximum weight spectrum codes with reduced length

Abstract: A q-ary linear code of dimension k is called a maximum weight spectrum (MWS) code if it has the maximum possible number (viz. (q^k-1)/(q-1)) of different non-zero weights. We construct MWS codes from quasi-minimal codes, thus obtaining of much shorter length than hitherto known. By an averaging argument, we show the existence of MWS codes of even shorter length.