ABSTRACTA microstrip coupled‐fed antenna with dual‐band dual‐mode and dual‐polarization characteristics is proposed in this letter. The antenna consists of two symmetrical rectangular patches as radiators and a microstrip line as coupled feeding structure. TM01 mode and TM10 mode of rectangular patch can be excited simultaneously at different frequencies for different polarizations. The proposed antenna is designed, fabricated and tested. The proposed antenna resonates at 4.3 and 5.4 GHz which are allocated for navigational applications. The measured −10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth of the two modes are 60 MHz in lower frequency band and 140 MHz in upper frequency band for horizontal and vertical polarizations, respectively. Radiation patterns at two resonant frequencies are measured and compared to simulation results. The proposed antenna has advantages of simple structure, low cross polarization and low cost. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 59:1065–1068, 2017