On my device the commands deliver the following results:
root@OpenWrt:/# lspci -nn
00:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Broadcom Limited Device [14e4:6328]
01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:ff1c] (rev 01)
root@OpenWrt:/# lsmod | grep owl
owl_loader 2032 0
root@OpenWrt:/# rmmod owl-loader
root@OpenWrt:/# modprobe owl-loader
[ 1329.982231] owl-loader 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath9k-eeprom-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[ 1329.993106] owl-loader 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
root@OpenWrt:/# [ 1330.091135] firmware ath9k-eeprom-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 1330.100545] owl-loader 0000:01:00.0: no eeprom data received.
root@OpenWrt:/# dmesg | grep ath
[ 12.281234] owl-loader 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath9k-eeprom-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[ 12.831320] firmware ath9k-eeprom-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 497.055627] owl-loader 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath9k-eeprom-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[ 497.164431] firmware ath9k-eeprom-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 1329.982231] owl-loader 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath9k-eeprom-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[ 1330.091135] firmware ath9k-eeprom-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed