We present a procedure for the measurement of quadrature components of an electromagnetic field in the far-field as an alternative to the traditional approach based on the homodyne detection (HD) technique. For this we suggest to use coherent sources such as phase-locked lasers or optical parametric oscillators operating above threshold. Then we show how to arrange the detection procedure in the far field that is exactly or partly equivalent to the HD. Our scheme can be applied for both the classical and non-classical fields. The potential of the procedure is illustrated by an example which utilizes the pixellised sources of the non-classical light. As an integral part of our investigation we develop a theory of the pixellised source of the spatio-temporally squeezed light.