We propose a simple yet effective norm-based joint transmit and receive antenna selection (NBJTRAS) assisted and two-tier channel estimation (TTCE) aided space-time shift keying (STSK) system, which is capable of significantly outperforming the conventional STSK system, while efficiently utilising available radio frequency (RF) chains. Specifically, the NBJTRAS carries out antenna selection based on the channel estimation (CE) generated using a low-complexity training based least square channel estimator by reusing RF chains. The selected sub-channel matrix is further refined by an efficient semi-blind CE and data detection scheme. Our simulation results show that only a few iterations are sufficient for the TTCE scheme to approach the optimal maximum-likelihood detection performance associated with perfectly channel state information.