WiFi activation with Debian Wheezy install

I have installed from the Debian Wheezy iso. I have also apt-get update and apt-get upgrade.

However, my computer does not give me the option to use WiFi.

The compuer is a packard bell laptop with the following report from lspci:
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

dmesg |grep ath
gives no match after startup.

lsmod |grep ath
gives no match after startup.

If I run:
modprobe ath9k

then lsmod|grep ath gives:
ath9k 75381 0
ath9k_common 12649 1 ath9k
ath9k_hw 328867 2 ath9k_common,ath9k
ath 17154 3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
mac80211 224518 1 ath9k
cfg80211 150489 3 ath,ath9k,mac80211

and the end of dmesg becomes:
521.780145] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[ 521.861207] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
[ 521.861214] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[ 521.861219] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[ 521.861224] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[ 521.861228] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[ 521.861232] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[ 521.861236] cfg80211: (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[ 521.861240] cfg80211: (5490000 KHz - 5730000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[ 521.861244] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[ 521.861248] cfg80211: (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 0 mBm)

But I still can't see wireless as an option under the icon in the top right corner of the screen. What am I doing wrong?

Incidentally, running Ubuntu 16.04 on a dual boot, gives me full wifi capability.

You might have better luck looking in or asking this question in a Debian or generic Linux forum. Once upon a time (10 or so years ago), getting most wifi dongles to work with Linux was a major chore. Lately most hardware I've tried just worked without much effort. Sorry I can't me much more help.