This paper describes a wireless demonstrator system designed for generation and detection of fundamental symmetrical Lamb waves (S0) characterized by high velocity and low attenuation. The demonstrator comprises two piezoceramic transducers embedded within an epoxy plate, drive and pre‐amplification electronics, a microcontroller and a communications interface. This arrangement can be configured to operate in an active pitch‐catch or pulse‐echo interrogation mode or as a passive acoustic emission (AE) sensor. The history of AE incidents, for example, may then be transmitted by wireless link. © 2003 American Institute of Physics