A small base node such as a Home Base Node (HNB), or femto cell, may reduce its transmit power in order to prevent co-channel or adjacent channel interference, or to limit its coverage area. Once the power is set, the HNB signal to a served Home User Equipment (HUE) its transmit Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) transmit power for accurate path loss estimation. When this power is outside of the permissible range, the HNB adjusts other parameters (such as Random Access Channel (RACH) constant value) to compensate for the error in signaled CPICH power, and thus compensate in that process the error in determining path loss. Similarly, if the uplink sensitivity is adjusted, to prevent interference, parameters would also be adjusted and signaled to the HUE to reflect the link imbalance.