Acoustic measurements in shallow lakes are subject to interference caused by reflections from the lake surface and bottom. This interference is particularly serious 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 a projector. At the same time, interference caused by lateral reflection is virtually eliminated by the farfield directivity characteristics of the dipole. The optimum relationships among dipole size, test distance, boundary geometry, and frequency are analyzed and verified by experiment.