An apparatus was developed to calibrate acoustic hydrophones and vector sensors between 25 and 2000 Hz. A standing wave field is established inside a vertically oriented, water-filled, elastic-walled waveguide by a piston velocity source at the bottom and a pressure-release boundary condition at the air/water interface. A computer-controlled linear positioning system allows a device under test to be precisely located in the water column while the acoustic response is measured. Some of the challenges of calibratinghydrophones and vector sensors in such an apparatus are discussed, including designing the waveguide to mitigate dispersion, understanding the impact of waveguide structural resonances on the acoustic field, and developing algorithms to post-process calibrationmeasurement data performed in a standing wave field. Data from waveguide characterization experiments and calibrationmeasurements are presented and calibrationuncertainty is reported.
