A wireless local area network (WLAN) transmitter includes a baseband processing module and a plurality of radio frequency (RF) transmitters. The baseband processing module is operably coupled to process data by scrambling the data in accordance with a pseudo random sequence to produce scrambled data. The processing of the data continues by selecting one of a plurality of encoding modes based on a mode selection signal. The processing of the data continues by encoding the scrambled data in accordance with the one of the plurality of encoding modes to produce encoded data. The processing of the data continues by determining a number of transmit streams based on the mode selection signal. The processing of the data further continues by converting the encoded data into streams of symbols in accordance with the number of transmit streams and the mode selection signal. A number of the plurality of RF transmitters are enabled based on the mode selection signal to convert a corresponding one of the streams of symbols into a corresponding RF signal such that a corresponding number of RF signals is produced.