A great many underwater acoustic propagation measurements have been made using either sinusoidal acoustic signal generators or explosives which generate very wide‐band impulsive type signals. Because of the extremely different characteristics between the two signals and the fact that the shock wave of the explosive signal does not follow the propagation theory developed, considering only infinitesimal displacements, considerable concern has existed as to whether the results obtained by the two methods are comparable. An experimental study was conducted to compare propagation measurements made using explosives with continuous and pulsed sinusoidal signals. By using available source level values for explosive charges, a comparison is made between the various type signals, and the results are shown to be in agreement within about 3 db.