A wireless transceiver includes a Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver, a baseband transmitter section, and a baseband receiver section. The baseband receiver section receives a baseband signal from the RF transceiver, extracts data therefrom, and provides the data to a host system. The baseband receiver section includes a programmable gain amplifier, an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC), a symbol timing compensation section, an RF carrier compensation section, a decision feedback equalizer section, and a preamble processor. The symbol timing compensation section modifies the samples of the baseband signal to compensate for symbol timing variations between a symbol clock of the wireless device and a symbol clock of a transmitting wireless device. The RF carrier compensation section modifies the samples of the baseband signal to compensate for RF carrier variations between an RF carrier of the wireless device and an RF carrier of the transmitting wireless device. The preamble processor determines a PGA gain factor, initial settings for the RF carrier compensation section, and equalizer coefficients.