Is he deaf?
Ooo, Speaker’s getting close. The radio does, in fact, reveal that something bad has happened. All senses are fully functional.
Points of interest: no questions have been asked about setting or about the nature of the objects in question.
Is he in a lighthouse?
Ding. He is, in fact, in a lighthouse. Keep goin’. 
So he turns on the light of the lighthouse, he turns on the radio (aka transceiver), hears the desparate pleas of the ships captain, realises that because he didn’t have the light on earlier they are about to run aground and shoots himself for being a baaaaad light house keeper.
Ah.
He was the lighthouse-keeper, and had left the light off. While he was out, a boat crashed because of his error. When he came back, he turned on the light and the radio, heard the news of the crash, and comitted suicide from guilt.
Phooey, you beat me to it by mere seconds. Kudos.
A man lies dead in a field holding an unburnt match. Explain.
He smelled gas, he went out there intending on lighting the match to see where the gas leak was coming from and was asphixiated.
Is it a field of vegetation, or something else? More specifically, is he in a minefield?
It’s not a minefield. It’s not any particular kind of field. But he didn’t get where he is by coming out of a house.
was he a skydiver tangled in his parachute trying to burn it free and open his reserve chute?
yeah i know…
i tried
CJ
Not quite, Bad Hat, but not completely off base.
He was in a hot air balloon with a few other companions and it sprung a leak, so they drew matches and the person with the unburnt match had to jump to save the rest from crashing?
Perfectly correct, Cougarfang!
:eek:
Wow, first time! 
Uh… Very closely related to Rilch’s, but then again it’s the only short one I can think of currently.
A man lies dead in a field with a piece of string and cloth next to him. How did he die?
First guess: It’s not an average ordinary house, but rather something special?
Hell, how come I overlooked half of the thread and hit “reply” immediately?
Forget my post.
A skydiver whose chute didn’t open? The string is the ripchord that broke away and the cloth is the chute spilling out of the broken pack?
Sorry, Mersavets, but no. Good answer, though…