We have studied the mean Doppler shift of equatorial irregularities in the E region, using data from a coherent radar situated in Ethiopia between 1976 and 1980. We found that even though the primary two-stream (or type I) waves are drifting at a speed close to the expected ion acoustic speed, there is a small but nonnegligible increase in the phase velocity with increasing electron drift in the electrojet. We attribute this increase to a heating of the electron gas by the large-amplitude, low-frequency waves that are present in the region when conditions are favorable to the production of large-scale gradient drift instabilities. On the other hand, for the single day when the production of large-scale gradient drift instabilities was inhibited, the behavior of the irregularities was quite different. Namely, the Doppler shift of 10-m waves (type O waves) was usually below the linear threshold value while the spectra remained narrow and type I-like rather than type II-like. On the other hand, the Doppler shift followed a dependence similar to that expected from type II waves. We have tentatively attributed this type O behavior to weak mode coupling, following similar inferences from recent Condor observations made near the top of the electrojet.