Measurement and demodulation may be impacted by varying transmit power due to varying numbers of carriers in a shared radio frequency (RF) spectrum band. Methods, systems, and devices are described for wireless communication. One method includes monitoring at least one carrier of a RF spectrum band for a first reference signal transmitted in a number of listen-before-talk (LBT) radio frames from a plurality of LBT radio frames associated with the plurality of carriers, where the plurality of LBT radio frames are received at the user equipment (UE) in different sets of at least one carrier of the RF spectrum band at different times, and where the first reference signal is associated with a first fixed transmit power; receiving a plurality of instances of the first reference signal; measuring the plurality of instances; and determining a cell measurement based at least in part on the measurements of the plurality of instances.