Learning on purpose
Working full-time and earning a master’s in engineering management. I’d rather build the skills deliberately than wait for them to show up.
Read the post Why I’m doing a master’s while working full-time.
Available for projects
Engineer by trade.
Builder by nature.
Making the complex clear. Bridging the gap between engineering, systems, and real-world impact.
About
Telecom & RF Engineer
The world loves a silo.
It rewards the specialist who stays in their lane, optimizes their tiny corner, and never looks up.
But the problems worth solving don't live in silos. They live in the intersections.
My foundation is in Wireless Communications, RF Design, and SDRs. But my actual work is translation. I take the chaotic, invisible complexity of our systems and I engineer clarity.
Innovation isn't a solitary act. It happens when disparate ideas collide. It happens when we see patterns where others see noise, and when someone is brave enough to say, "What if we tried it this way?"
I don't just build systems. I build the bridges between them. I lead teams not by dictating, but by finding their unique strengths and giving them the space to do work that matters.
The future doesn't belong to the people who build higher walls. It belongs to the people who connect the dots.
Let’s build something remarkable.
Beyond work
The rest of the story
RF safety is what I do, and I love it. But I’m curious about a lot more than antennas. Here’s what else fills the week — and what I write about.
A briefing I built
Each morning starts with long-form briefings on politics, finance, technology and strategy, turned into audio I listen to like a personal podcast.
Read the post My morning briefing.Seeing the whole board
Energy, defense, gold, AI and the big financial institutions — I follow them to understand how one shift ripples into the next.
Latest of 2 posts And then what?Surat to Texas
I moved from India to the US in 2021 and built a life from scratch. Surat — the festivals, the food, my parents — still travels with me.
Latest of 2 posts More than RF.Body as a system
The gym, badminton, and paying attention to food. Same approach as everything else: understand it, then do it properly.
Read the post The gym is a lab.People first
Most of my systems exist for someone — a reminder, a plan, a guide. I’d rather quietly fix something than talk about it.
Latest of 2 posts Reminders are a love language.Writing
Notes on work and life
Essays
More than RF.
This site started as notes on RF safety. It’s becoming notes on everything I’m trying to understand.
Telecom
Everyone says it won't work.
Everyone says Starlink Mobile won't work. They're right — if you grade it as a fourth carrier that has to beat T-Mobile in Manhattan. That's the wrong test.
Learning
Why I’m doing a master’s while working full-time.
I’m earning a master’s in engineering management alongside my job. Here’s how I decided it was worth the evenings and weekends.
At work
What I do at work
Predictive & On-Field EME Study
Site-specific RF exposure modeling for macro towers, rooftops, DAS venues, and small-cell / CRAN nodes — IXUS-driven simulations backed by on-site spectrum measurements when needed.
FCC OET-65 & ICNIRP Compliance
End-to-end compliance documentation: General Public and Occupational MPE evaluation, signage strategy, and certification letters carriers can hand to municipalities and AHJs.
CRAN Certification & Small-Cell Programs
Directed AT&T's National CRAN Certification Letter program — 1,000+ nodes — and Verizon's small-cell EME compliance pipeline. Built to scale.
Rooftop Safety Plans & Mitigation
Signage strategies, exclusion zone diagrams, and access protocols for shared rooftops with multiple carrier arrays — the deliverable that keeps tenant techs out of harm's way.
Automation & QC Tooling for Compliance Workflows
Python automation for FUZE / IXUS / Roofmaster pipelines — report generation, KML overlays, QC validation. The same tooling that delivered Verizon's highest report volume to date.
Field Measurement & Drive-Test Support
On-site EME validation, spectrum captures, drive-test post-processing, and 5G NR FCC compliance testing — including the methodologies behind 400+ Hex-7 evaluations for DISH 5GNR.
Selected work
Programs I've run
01
Verizon National EME Compliance Pipeline
350+ predictive and on-field EME compliance reports delivered across DAS, small-cell, and CRAN — the highest single-engineer volume on the program.
02
AT&T National CRAN Certification Letter Program
Directed certification and documentation for 1,000+ CRAN nodes nationwide. Built the template system, QC gates, and automation that kept deliverables consistent.
03
DISH 5G NR FCC Compliance — 400+ Hex-7 Sites
Led methodology development and execution for FCC compliance testing of 400+ Hex-7 nodes for DISH Wireless 5G NR infrastructure.
04
Real-Time KML Tester Tracker
Built a live tracker that pushed field-tester GPS positions onto Google Earth via custom KML layers — turned a black box into a dashboard. (GitHub)
05
SDR-Based Chip-less RFID Reader
WINGS Lab research at University at Buffalo — improved tag reading accuracy by 40% via a software-defined-radio reader, plus a custom Out-of-Tree GNU Radio block.
06
Low-Noise Amplifier (LNA) Design — QUCS
End-to-end LNA design and simulation with QUCS — gain and stability (S21) targets surpassing the original spec. (GitHub)
Open tools
A calculator suite for the field
Fourteen calculators covering the numbers an RF safety engineer actually reaches for — dB, dBm, dBi, EIRP, ERP, path loss, link budgets, MPE limits under FCC OET-65, and a Safety Code 6 cross-walk. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Contact
Let's talk
A rooftop evaluation, a compliance program, a question about something I wrote, or an idea you want to think through — tell me what's on your mind and I'll come back with a real answer.
Or email hello@dhruvalpotla.com