A computer implemented method selects antennas in a multiple-input, multiple-output wireless local area network that includes multiple stations, and each station includes a set of antennas. Multiple consecutively transmitted sounding packets are received in a station. Each sounding packet corresponds to a different subset of the set of antennas. A channel matrix is estimated from the multiple consecutively transmitted sounding packets. A frame including a high throughput (HT) control field is sent to initiate a selecting of antennas, and a subset of antennas is selected according to the channel matrix.