Last Year's Youngest General Now This Year's Youngest Extra

Mattie Clauson, AD7BL, at her station. Her jumpsuit reflects her intense interest in the International Space Station.

NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 29, 2004--An Oregon girl considered a year ago as the youngest General class licensee in the US now may be the country's youngest Amateur Extra ticket holder. Seven-year-old Mattie Clauson, AD7BL (ex-KD7TYN and ex-KD7SDF), of Roseburg passed her Extra examination January 14 during a Valley Amateur Radio Club ARRL-VEC volunteer examination session in Eugene. The FCC granted her new ticket and an Extra-appropriate call sign on January 20.

"I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT! I PASSED MY EXTRA CLASS EXAM!!!!! YIPPEEE!!!" Mattie exclaimed loudly on the QRZ.com Web site.

She also announced her accomplishment in a message routed via the RS0ISS packet system on the International Space Station. "Looks like a future astronaut to me," Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, remarked after spotting the post.

Mattie says she'd at least like to talk with one of the ISS astronauts some day. She says she heard ISS Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale, KB5UAC, on the air from NA1SS but was unable to make contact. She keeps listening, however. She's also a member of the ISS FanClub and enjoys digipeating through RS0ISS.

Mattie's proud papa, Tim Clauson, AC7SP, says his daughter missed only four of the questions on the Element 4 test, which Mattie described as "really, really hard!" Whether or not she is indeed the youngest Amateur Extra class licensee is more a matter of speculation these days, since the FCC no longer makes date-of-birth information public.

Several of the very youngest amateur operators in the US have been female. In 1948, Jane Bieberman, W3OVV (now Jane De Nuzzo and still holding the same call sign), made the December cover of QST for getting her General ticket when she was just barely 10 years old. Rebecca Rich, KB0VVT--a very active amateur--got her Extra ticket in 1997 at age 8. The parents of both girls were amateur licensees.

Mattie's own ham radio heritage also may have been a big plus. Her late great grandfather, S.A. "Sam" Sullivan, was W6WXU; his daughter, Joan Brady--Mattie's grandmother--now holds his former call sign. That makes her a fourth-generation ham.

Seven-year-old Mattie is dwarfed by six Valley Amateur Radio Club volunteer examiners, who were present during her testing session.

Since entering Amateur Radio herself at age 5 when she passed the Technician test, the youngster has progressed steadily through the ranks each subsequent year, attaining General class at age 6 and now Amateur Extra at age 7. She concedes she would not have made it to Extra without a lot of study help and guidance from her parents (her mom, Charlotte, is AC7XM) and practice examinations on the QRZ.com Web site. The Clausons all are ARRL members.

Mattie says she continues to enjoy working HF SSB, especially DX. She also enjoys checking into various HF nets in the evenings and regularly checks into the Douglas County Amateur Radio Emergency Service Net as a visitor.

Homeschooled with her younger sisters Caitlin and Hannah, she's also a voracious reader who enjoys--among other favorites--books by Cynthia Wall, KA7ITR, Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew. Tim and Charlotte Clauson say they've found Amateur Radio to be a very useful adjunct to homeschooling--especially in terms of letter recognition, spelling, science, geography and other subjects.

Aside from ham radio, Tim Clauson says, Mattie is "a regular kid who likes riding her bike, playing with her sisters and friends and flying her toy airplanes. She even likes to play in the mud."

Mattie soon hopes to be sporting a new vanity call sign. Her father says she's applied for AE7MC, a call sign suggested by one of the members of the VE team she examined under. It would stand for Amateur Extra 7 (year-old) Mattie Clauson, her dad explained.

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