This analytical study concerns the sensing of wide‐band pressure fields by moving receivers or sensors. Treated are linear kinematical aspects for ideal sensors that travel at constant subsonic or supersonic velocities. The fields are described in wave‐harmonic (wavenumber‐frequency) space. The sensed signal or noise components are related at their sensed frequencies and on a spectral basis. It is shown that the point sensor is no longer uniform or nondirective once it moves. Its directional pattern, and that of spatially extended sensors, too, depends upon the Mach number of sensor motion, upon the sensed frequency, and even upon the choice of a reference spectrum for the fields in the resting fluid. A certain compensation for the effects of motion is possible in directive sensors by adjustment of parameters. This compensation, however, is partial and permits only the preservation of some crucial feature. The adjustment is explained in terms of a “matched Mach number” for back‐nulled gradient and endfire‐line sensors. The definition of gain is amended, and the concept of the equivalent signals of sensed field components is recommended as a suitable measure of a sensing situation. Equivalent spectra of noise incident from the rear and of isotropic noise are presented for velocity‐matched back‐hulled gradient and endfire‐line sensors; depending upon frequency and reference spectrum, they differ from their rest values.