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A measurement method of an active element antenna pattern in a hybrid antenna array with heterodyne architecture under a real environment is proposed and applied to the design of an ultralow sidelobe level scanning array. To avoid the phase uncertainty caused by the local oscillator signal in the heterodyne architecture, a phase‐normalized active element pattern (PNAEP) is used to characterize the element antenna patterns of both amplitude and phase. The PNAEP has almost taken account of all the practical factors of an array, such as mutual couplings, various types of element antennas, unequal spacing, or diverse environmental effects. The PNAEP is measured with a 16‐element scanning receiving array with a heterodyne architecture to validate the feasibility of the PNAEP. Based on the PNAEP, the scanning array achieve an ultralow sidelobe level of −33 dB. Applying to various receiving array architectures the PNAEP method is a feasible and universal tool for array synthesis and optimization under real environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]