High frequency surface wave radar(HFSWR) has now gained more and more attention in real-time monitoring of sea surface states such as current, waves and wind. Normally a small-aperture antenna array is preferred to a large-aperture one due to the easiness and low cost to set up. However, the large beam-width and the corresponding incorrect division of the first- and second-order Doppler spectral regions often lead to big errors in wave height and period estimations. Therefore, for the HFSWR with a compact cross-loop/monopole antenna(CMA), a new algorithm involving improved beam-forming(BF) and spectral division techniques is proposed. On one hand, the cross-spectrum of the output sequence by the conventional beam-forming(CBF) with all the three elements and the output with only the two loops is used in place of the CMA output self-spectrum to achieve a decreased beam-width; on the other hand, the better null seeking process is included to improve the division accuracy of the first- and second-order regions. The algorithm is used to reprocess the data collected by the portable HFSWR OSMAR-S during the Sailing Competition of the 16 th Asian Games held in Shanwei in November 2010, and the improvements of both the correlation coefficients and root-mean-square(RMS) errors between the wave height and period estimations and in situ buoy measurements are obvious. The algorithm has greatly enhanced the capabilities of OSMAR-S in wave measurements. High frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) has now gained more and more attention in real-time monitoring of sea surface states such as current, waves and wind. Normally a small-aperture antenna array is preferred to a large-aperture one due to the easiness and low cost to set up. However, the large beam-width and the corresponding incorrect division of the first- and second-order Doppler spectral regions often lead to big errors in wave height and period estimations. Thus, for the HFSWR with a On one hand, the cross-spectrum of the output sequence by the conventional beam-forming (CBF), a new algorithm involving improved beam-forming (BF) and spectral division techniques is proposed. with all the three elements and the output with only the two loops is used in place of the CMA output self-spectrum to achieve a decreased beam-width; on the other hand, the better null seeking process is included to improve the division accuracy of the first- and second-order regions. The algorithm is used to reprocess the data collected by the portable HFSWR OSMAR-S during the Sailing Competition of the 16th Asian Games held in Shanwei in November 2010, and the improvements of both the correlation coefficients and root-mean -square (RMS) errors between the wave height and period estimations and in situ buoy measurements are obvious. The algorithm has greatly enhanced the capabilities of OSMAR-S in wave measurements.