When acoustic measurements are made in a shallow lake or tank, reflections from the boundaries produce serious interference in the sound field at frequencies below about 2 kHz. If a dipole (two out‐of‐phase simple sources) is used as a projector, substantial sound‐pressure level is available in the near field, regardless of the well‐known inefficiency of such projectors. At the same time, interference caused by lateral reflection is virtually eliminated by the farfield cosine pattern and that caused by longitudinal reflection is reduced by the inefficiency or low farfield response. Curves show the nearfield sound pressure as a function of dipole size, test distance, boundary geometry, and frequency. Experimental data illustrate elimination of interference in a shallow lake.