In MIMO a wireless node's receive chain demodulation function is enhanced to include phase tracking using very high-throughput long training fields (VHT-LTFs) embedded in a frame preamble. Single stream pilot tones are added during transmission of VHT-LTFs. A receiver estimates the channel using the pilot tones in a first set of VHT-LTFs, and estimates the phase of the pilot tones using a second set of VHT-LTFs. The phase estimation receiver estimates the channel using the pilot tones in a first set of VHT-LTFs. The phase estimation is continuously applied to other received data tones throughout the VHT-LTFs of data symbols. Phase errors due to PLL mismatches and phase noise are reduced at reception, leading to better signal to noise ratio for different levels of drift and frequency offset.