An antenna (100) with an embedded wideband matching substrate (102) is provided. The substrate (102) comprises impedance matching circuitry (300) providing a low frequency (LF) matching circuit (330) and a high frequency (HF) matching circuit (340) for tri-band operation. A stripline (314) having a stripline ground (324) is disposed on the substrate. The stripline (314) provides a matching element and the stripline ground (324) provides a common ground (324) for both the HF and LF matching circuits. The substrate (102) is shaped with a tabular portion (106) which facilitates encasing the substrate (102) within a casing (118). The tabular portion (106) further provides an alignment feature for wrapping of a flexible radiating element about the casing and flexible antenna rod (126) to complete the antenna structure (100).