Lowering the Noise Floor: Mindful Listening Through an RF Lens

If you’ve ever worked with frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, there exists an inherent challenge: transmitting and receiving simultaneously on separate frequency bands without creating self-interference. To make this work well in practice requires being mindful of the pitfalls and designing for optimal signal fidelity.

In my career, I frequently encountered this phenomenon, not just as an engineer but as a human being trying to communicate well. The metaphor is hard to ignore. When someone is speaking and I find myself preparing what I want to say next, it’s like I’m transmitting while trying to receive. And just like in an FDD radio, that simultaneous activity raises the receiver noise floor (aka receive band noise or RxBN) in my own mind. The signal-to-noise ratio of the incoming signal drops. My thoughts on how to respond interfere with their words.

This kind of internal self-interference has been a real challenge for me over the years. Whether I was presenting to a team, navigating a tough design review, or just trying to connect with a colleague or friend, I’d often catch myself mentally drafting responses while someone else was still talking. Sometimes, I wouldn’t catch it at all. I’d miss something important, not because I didn’t care, but because I wasn’t truly receiving. I was transmitting.

In RF systems, when the transmit signal is too strong, it can bleed into the receive path, minus the duplexer rejection. Engineers solve this by lowering transmit power, adding filtering, or even scheduling transmissions more thoughtfully. The goal is to recover the incoming signal with the maximum possible signal-to-noise ratio so nothing gets lost.

Listening works the same way. If my mental transmitter is running hot, crafting replies, anticipating rebuttals, or framing stories, then I’m not truly receiving or listening. I’m simulating attention, not offering it. And while I might reconstruct the gist later through error correction (“I think they meant…”), that’s not the same as full-fidelity listening. It risks missing nuance, emotion, or the deeper point entirely.

These days, I still catch myself slipping into that old mode. The difference is, I catch it a bit earlier. I can dial down the internal chatter, lower the transmit power, and recommit to listening. It’s a work in progress, but it’s progress. When I manage to do it well, I hear the words and, more meaningfully, the intention behind them. I notice tone, pacing, and pauses that may have otherwise been lost in the noise. I begin to receive the full data stream of another human being.

And when it’s finally my turn to transmit? My response carries more weight. It’s tuned, contextual, and less likely to contribute to the noise. It’s not just any signal, but rather a value-added communication.

So the next time you’re in conversation, especially a meaningful one, consider this: can you lower your internal transmit power? Can you create the conditions for a clean reception? Because in both engineering and life, high-quality communication starts with listening well.

And that, in my experience, is a form of foundational tuning that can enrich lives.

Author: Jason C.