An example method includes detecting arrival of a packet at a receiver node including detecting over the air energy using at least one of the receiver node's antenna sectors. The method includes selecting one or more RF receive parameters based on information or metrics included in or determined from a pre-payload portion of the packet, including at least one of: selecting a first subset of the antenna sectors with better metrics than a second subset of the antenna sectors to receive the payload of the packet; or selecting an antenna polarization with better metrics than another antenna polarization to receive the payload of the packet. The method includes receiving a payload of the packet at the receiver node using the selected RF receive parameters.