A system and method of estimating radio frequency (RF) background noise in a radio receiver system comprises determining a total receiver front-end noise based on a noise equivalent receiver bandwidth; estimating external noise associated with the radio receiver system; determining internal noise associated with the radio receiver system from a known noise value; combining the external noise with the internal noise; determining an absolute external (RF) background noise floor associated with the radio receiver system; estimating an out of band noise contribution based on radio receiver selectivity and known received noise levels of out of band sources; and generating a (RF) noise estimate in the radio receiver system based on the above steps. The invention utilizes the (RF) noise estimate to form a (RF) receiver signal to noise ratio enabling an estimate performance of (RF) radio links in the radio receiver system operating in a benign and hostile (RF) environment.