A beveled monopole antenna for UWB communication systems is presented. It is fed by a 50-Ω modified microstrip feedline. The impedance matching is improved using beveled patch, modified feedline, and semicircular like ground plane. The bandwidth is further enhanced by the excitation of an additional resonance at higher frequency due to the loading of ground plane with a pair of rectangular slots. The antenna is fabricated on a low cost FR-4 epoxy substrate having size of 40 mm (Lsub) × 30 mm (Wsub) × 1.6 mm (h). A VSWR ratio of 7.1:1 is achieved for an impedance bandwidth of 2.4–17.1 GHz (14.7 GHz i.e., 150.77%). The antenna structure has omnidirectional radiation pattern and an average peak realized gain of 3.5 dB. The experimental and simulated results are found to be in good agreement. The designed antenna structure has wide bandwidth with a size comparable to those of earlier reported ones. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1289–1296, 2015