A system and method are provided for compensating for an I/Q mismatch of either a direct conversion transmitter or a direct conversion receiver based on known short training symbols of a Short Training Sequence (STS) of packets transmitted according to the IEEE 802.11a or 802.11g standard. To compensate for an I/Q mismatch of a direct conversion transmitter, a packet including the STS is transmitted. Due to the I/Q mismatch of the direct conversion transmitter, the transmitter distorts the packet to provide a distorted packet including a distorted STS. Based on one or more short training symbols of the distorted STS and a known ideal short training symbol, a distortion matrix is determined. Subsequent packets transmitted by the direct conversion transmitter are pre-distorted based on the distortion matrix. Compensation of the I/Q mismatch of a direct conversion receiver may be performed in a similar fashion.