1. A wireless access point comprising: a set of N antenna elements, wherein each element is adapted to receive a version of a radio frequency transmission composed of data bearing signals including one or more transmitted spatial streams; a multi-stream wireless modem circuit including a set of K received signal input nodes and adapted to demodulate a received transmission including one or more spatial streams; and a received signal translation block positioned on a signal path between said set of N antenna elements and said multi-stream wireless modem and adapted to translate N data bearing signals derived from radio frequency signals received at said set of N antenna elements into K corresponding signal inputs to said K received signal input nodes, by applying a translation matrix to the N data bearing signals, which translation matrix is generated based at least partially on received signal characterization information; wherein N and K are each natural numbers larger than 1, N≠K and the translation matrix is generated and applied such that each of the N data bearing signals effects at least one of the K corresponding signal inputs.