Techniques are described to perform transmission of a reference signal such as a sounding reference signal (SRS). An example wireless communication method includes performing, by a network device, a first transmission that indicates a plurality of partial frequency factor values to a communication device, wherein each partial frequency factor value indicates a number used to determine a reduced number of resource blocks by the communication device to transmit a reference signal; and performing a second transmission, after the first transmission and to the communication device, of one or more bits that indicate a partial frequency factor value from the plurality of partial frequency factor values.