This paper attempts to examine the characteristics of underwater acoustic signals distorted in shallow water environments. Time signals are simulated using an acoustic model that employs the Fourier synthesis scheme. An acoustic experiment was conducted in the shallow sea near Pohang, Korea, where water depth is about 60m. The environment in the simulation is set up so that it approximates the experimental condition, which can be regarded as range-independent. The signal is LFM(linar frequency modulated) type centered on one of the four frequencies 200, 400, 600 and 800Hz, each being swept up or down with the bandwidth of 100Hz. To analyze the signal characteristics, the study introduces a spectrum estimation scheme, pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution (PWVD). The simulated and measured signals suffer great interference by the interaction of neighboring rays. Although there are constructive or destructive interference, the signals keep LFM characteristics well. This is thought that only a few dominant rays of small loss contribute to the receive signals in a shallow water environment