Multiple antennas used for data transmission and/or reception are also used to achieve omni-directional antenna functionality. Signals from the antennas are converted to baseband and stored. Phase shifts are applied to the stored signals to steer the effective reception beam in one of a number of directions. A process of interest (e.g., white space sensing) is applied to the beam to produce a result for the given beam direction. By scanning the beam over a number of representative directions, a spatial receiver range equivalent to that of an omni-directional antenna is achieved.