I am getting a very clear GNR signal eventhough I haven't even done the quest yet. What gives?

I have installed the latest Unofficial Fallout 3 patch and no mods.

So... you're complaining about listening to music, bragging, or just letting everyone know this glitch is out there? I'm confused :brokencomputer:

Feeling a little blunt today are we?

With regard to the question, I've not encountered this problem, if you can hear GNR *perfectly* clear outside Vault 101, no static, then there's definitely something wrong, try disabling the Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch in the load order and see if it helps.

Are you close to GNR? The whole point of the quest is that so you can hear the radio farther.

My problem was that, eventhough I haven't recovered the dish yet, the GNR signal is super clear, giving me the impression that something is broken because normally you'd only hear static.

... then I realized that it's only clear when I'm near the GNR building, and the surrounding areas. I fast travelled back to Megaton and I'm hearing static again. Is this how the game is supposed to work?

I thought it was an issue because vanilla Fallout 3 with all DLCs have this bug where not only GNR is clear as day from the start of the game, but Three Dog talks about stuff the player hasn't even done yet. So I thought that my issue in this thread is somehow a manifestation of the same glitch.

Your game is fine. Having the dish shot up only shortened Three-dogs broadcast range.