Hams and non-hams around the world alike got to know Charlie Harpole after the earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Thailand and other regions in Southeast Asia in December 2004. Charlie, whose numerous callsigns included K4VUD, HSØZCW and VU3CHE, became a line of communication for major broadcast networks and print media as the tragedy and rescue efforts unfolded.

Charlie was already well-known as a film and communications scholar and professor in the United States. An active DXpeditioner and ham radio advocate, he was reported by the Daily DX as having become a Silent Key. His contributions over the years included testing out the new 5 MHZ amateur band, followed by a successful completion of the first two-way transatlantic contact on that band via ham radio on July 4th, 2003.

An article in the student newspaper of the University of Central Florida, where Charlie had been a professor, recognised the vital role he played during the 1996 Liberian Civil War, contacting a missionary confined in a compound there amid the fighting and relaying information he was requested to pass along by the UN and the US State Department.

The world heard more from Charlie in December 2004. He had been filming and providing support to the VU4 DXpedition on Andaman Island when the tsunami disaster swept over South Asia. As DXpeditioners switched to handling health, welfare and emergency communications messages, Charlie returned to Thailand, where he and his wife were living, to provide radio support for recovery efforts after the loss of conventional communication. He also provided realtime information to many of the world's media organisations, including MSNBC and CNN.

Charlie was 80.