Sub-kilometer wireless range from a sub-$60 box running an OpenWrt fork is the pitch behind Elecrow's ThinkNode G4, a Wi-Fi HaLow gateway built around the legacy Mediatek MT7628N MIPS SoC and a Quectel FGH100M radio module. The HaLow side leans on the Morse Micro MM6108 chipset to push up to 32.5 Mbps over the 850 to 950 MHz band, with line-of-sight reach quoted at 1 to 2 km (0.6 to 1.2 miles).
On the software side, screenshots in the documentation point to Linux 5.15 paired with what the vendor labels OpenWrt 1.1, which almost certainly means the Morse Micro OpenWrt fork rather than upstream OpenWrt (currently tracking Linux 6.12 in snapshots). The MT7628N itself has long been supported in mainline OpenWrt, so anyone willing to rebuild and forward-port the Morse Micro HaLow drivers should have a path off the vendor branch. Configuration runs through the familiar LuCI web UI, with AP, station, and 802.11s mesh modes documented in the user manual.
The HLK-7628N core module brings 128 MB of DDR2 RAM, 32 MB of SPI flash, and 2x2 802.11b/g/n on 2.4 GHz rated at 300 Mbps combined. A single 10/100 Mbps Ethernet jack handles the wired uplink, with a USB-C port doubling as the 5 V/1 A power input. Encryption covers AES, SHA-256/384/512, and WPA3. The enclosure measures 7.5 x 7.5 x 3.0 cm (3.0 x 3.0 x 1.2 inches), weighs 80 g (2.8 oz), and ships with both a 2.4 GHz antenna and a HaLow antenna.
One caveat for European buyers: the bundled HaLow antenna is tuned for the 902 to 928 MHz band used across the Americas, Japan, Australia, and parts of Southeast Asia, not the 863 to 868 MHz allocation in the EU, so a regional antenna swap may be required. Two units can extend an existing network point-to-point, or several can form an 802.11s mesh aimed at remote cameras, industrial control, asset tracking, or rural backhaul.
Elecrow lists the ThinkNode G4 at $54 (€50) plus shipping on its own store, with an AliExpress listing expected to follow.
