Wi-Fi HaLow Arrives as a $58 USB Stick

Morse Micro released USB-A and USB-C Wi-Fi HaLow adapters on 14 September, based on its MM8108 SoC and the MM8108-RD09 reference design. They let any PC or router join an 802.11ah network without an expansion card.

Specifications: 850 to 950 MHz sub-1 GHz licence-exempt spectrum, up to 43.3 Mbps using 256-QAM at 8 MHz bandwidth, channel widths of 1, 2, 4 and 8 MHz, transmit power up to 26 dBm, external SMA connector with a HaLow antenna included. Both access point and station modes are supported. Operating range is -40 to +85 degrees Celsius. Security covers WPA3, AES, SHA-256/384/512 and OWE. Regional variants exist for the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Europe and Japan. Windows, Linux and macOS are supported, though Linux needs a patched kernel with S1G support or Morse Micro's OpenWrt fork; drivers and firmware are on GitHub.

Price is $58.00 per adapter at Mouser — with the caveat, noted by a commenter, that Mouser enforces a minimum order quantity of 140 units. Morse Micro also published the hardware design and manufacturing files for the MM8108-RD09 reference design.

HaLow's problem was never the physics. Sub-1 GHz propagation through buildings and across yards has always been the point. The problem was that evaluating it meant a development board, a toolchain and a project plan, which is enough friction to keep it off the shortlist.

A dongle that does both AP and station, with an open reference design and OpenWrt support, changes that into something a controls engineer can try on a Friday afternoon between two buildings that a 2.4 GHz link has never reached.