A method and apparatus of minimizing corruption of a reference clock to a RF circuitry in a radio system is disclosed. A DICE-T receives a reference clock in a Low Voltage Differential Signal (LVDS) format from a GVA. The DICE-T personality card converts the reference clock signal into an analog signal. The analog signal is supplied to the Core Engine RF card and the LVDS format signal is supplied to the Core Engine modem for local clocking. The Core Engine RF feeds the analog signal into a programmable phase locked loop chip to generate all the clocks required for RF processing. The analog signal is also used to provide the clocks to the ADC and DAC of core engine modem. By routing the reference clock directly to the RF card then deriving the modem clocks, the phase noise of the reference clock is reduced.