As opposed to phased-array radars, compact HFR systems do not have receive antenna arrays and therefore cannot make use of standard BF techniques to process the radar signal in azimuth. Instead, they use a method that belongs to the family of Direction FindingDirection Finding techniques. This is a statistical approach, based on the covariance properties of the set of antenna signals, to identify the different bearings associated with the Doppler rays in the First-Order Bragg Region, which in the end allows the surface currents to be resolved in azimuth. It can be applied to both compact and phased-array radar systems and can achieve high azimuthal resolution in the optimal cases. We describe the method in a general algebraic framework that also includes BF techniques and discuss its performance and limitations in the context of HFR surface current mapping.