Second-order interference of pion pairs of equal charge is observed in good statistics samples of 16 GeV/c π+p and K−p interactions (2 × 106 and 106 pion pair combinations, respectively) and in a smaller sample of pp annihilations at rest. The effective radius R of the pion source is found to be approximately 1.4 fm for all three types of interaction. The interference does not appear to be “total”, about 60–80% of the like pairs interfering. It is shown that the numerical results for the radius R, for the depth cτ of the source “photosphere” and for the fraction λ of the interfering pairs are sensitive to any dynamical correlation in the background, and hence depend on the background chosen. It is argued that further refinements in the theoretical formulation of the phenomenon and in the experimental approach are needed for truly quantitative results.