Network Speeds ath9k Atheros

[firenice03]

So I picked up an Asus E402W, not a bad lil machine, have the UEFI version of LL4.2 installed and updated.
It had a slot for a drive - so I added an SSD.. Thus far all is good, except for 1 little thing - Atheros wireless adapter..Max speed is about half of what I should get and it will fluctuate all the way down to 1 Mb/s to its max of 72 Mb/s (normal should be 114/115 Mb/s)
Hers is some output:

Code:

uname -r
4.15.0-52-generic

I have tried 4.16, 4.20 and 5.0 to see if any difference - alas no

Code:

inxi -n
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k
           IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: 80:c5:f2:6c:86:83

Code:

lspci -nnk -d 168c:
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0036] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: AzureWave QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [1a3b:218d]
    Kernel driver in use: ath9k
    Kernel modules: ath9k

I've tried a few of the usual;
-- Checked Install Drivers - Nada
-- Synaptic - nothing for the 9565
-- Bluetooth disabled (no change)
-- Tried the mod - ath9k nohwcrypt=1 (per https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2397106)

Any ideas from the census   - other mods / kernels etc..

TIA