Baseband processor and communication overloading can be relieved in a portable wireless communication terminal by decentralizing power control (38, 39) and frequency shift control (75) functions that are conventionally concentrated in the baseband processor. A timing sequencer (31) for power control can be integrated into a transceiver of the portable wireless communications terminal, thereby advantageously permitting power control signals to be generated on the transceiver side (27, 29) rather than the baseband processor side. Shadow registers (74) containing information indicative of commonly used or repeated frequencies can be integrated into the transceiver side, thereby advantageously relieving the baseband processor of corresponding frequency shift control responsibilities. These responsibilities can be further relieved by integrating into the transceiver side a sequencer (86) cooperable with the shadow registers for controlling frequency shifting of a frequency generator on the transceiver side, and by integrating into the transceiver side further shadow registers (85) for programming the sequencer with desired frequency shift sequences.