The currently used time-domain traveling wave fault location methods give inaccurate results when using the secondary signals of coupled capacitive voltage transformer（CVT） as input. A solution is presented in which the fault distance is calculated on the frequency domain. The CVT's transient response and its influence on the traveling wave frequency spectrum are analyzed. The formula for making distance calculation based on the main component of the traveling wave spectra is derived. In particular， the frequency spectra of the traveling wave induced by the high-resistance grounded fault are discussed， followed by a study of the feasibility of using such frequency estimation methods as the multiple signal classification（MUSIC） algorithm to extract the main frequency component.