Galaxy News Radio (quest)

Galaxy News Radio is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also a Achievement on the Xbox 360 and PC; and a Bronze Trophy on the PlayStation 3.

Retrieve the communication relay dish from the Virgo II Lunar Lander in the Museum of Technology and install it at the top of the Washington Monument.

Even though this quest is part of the main story line, it can be skipped with a speech check. Players are advised to attempt the speech check if they can, because doing so would net additional quest reward.

Galaxy News Radio
While normally you must complete this quest before you can proceed with the main quest, there are three ways to skip it. You can either use the speech skill on Three Dog, at which point he will give you a clue to your father's whereabouts without requiring you to do the quest first, you can simply travel to Rivet City unprompted and meet with Doctor Li directly, or lastly you can simply destroy Megaton which will kill the man you must talk to learn the whereabouts of Dad and the location of G.N.R. station. Discovering the G.N.R station at random or by encountering the Brotherhood of Steel group and therefore fighting a Super Mutant Behemoth will also activate the quest. You can still choose to do the Galaxy News Radio quest later by talking to Three Dog.

Unmarked quest: Caching in with Three Dog
If you discover your father's whereabouts from someone other than Three Dog and still complete this quest he will compliment your dedication and then give you the key and map location to his personal weapon stash at Hamilton's Hideaway.

Find the Museum of Technology
You can ask Three Dog for directions to the Museum of Technology and the Washington Monument. From the radio studio, where you met Three Dog, proceed downstairs to the back door of the Galaxy News Radio building (**DO NOT go back out the front door, lest you be locked out as a result of a bug in the game!** ). From there you will need to locate the entrance to the Collapsed Car Tunnel. Enter the Collapsed Car Tunnel door and follow the tunnels to Dupont Station.

Enter Dupont Station and follow the way points south, while staying on the Red Metro line. You will pass the Central Station and then later reach the Museum of Technology. During this trip you will encounter lots of Raiders, Feral Ghouls and a few Super Mutants, so make sure you have plenty of Stimpacks, ammo and weapons.

Retrieve the Communication Relay Dish
Inside the Museum of Technology you need to find the Virgo II Lunar Lander, which is located in the West Wing of the building. You can obtain this information from a terminal in the Atrium to the right of the entrance when you come in. Note however that the place is crawling with Super Mutants. Your goal is to reach the West Wing going through the Vault-Tec demonstration vault, upstairs. You can also attempt retrieving Jiggs' Loot using the Museum information terminal in the Atrium.

In the west wing, locate the Virgo II Lunar Lander. The west wing is divided in 3 areas: The Planetarium, the Delta IX Exhibition and the Virgo II Exhibition. Be ready for a fight as all these areas are patrolled in some way by Super Mutants. Once you've found the Lander and cleared all hostiles, grab the dish by interacting with the Lander and make your way to the exit.

Find the Washington Monument
Exit the Museum and head west for the Washington Monument. It is also in The Mall area and can be seen from the entrance of the Museum of Technology as a giant obelisk. There are Brotherhood guards stationed there and you'll need to use the terminal to open the security doors. The password is given to you in your notes at the beginning of the quest. Take the elevator to the top, and interact with the radio equipment to install the dish. Finally, return to Three Dog at Galaxy News Radio to finish the quest.

Bugs

 * There is a known bug in all versions of the game where, if you do not exit Galaxy News Radio via the back door as Three Dog instructs, you will be unable to return to the building to complete the quest via the front door (using the intercom will result in the doorman telling you that it's open, when it's not), and the side-door will be locked and require a successful very hard lockpick to open. You cannot backtrack to GNR from Dupont Circle. The back door to GNR is up a destroyed flight of stairs and cannot be accessed. Picking the very hard side door will result in negative karma, but will allow you entrance to the building to complete this quest. This bug can also be triggered by bypassing GNR entirely and going straight to Rivet City, then the Jefferson Memorial.

I have no Idea how this happened to me, but even though I have completed the game I did not get the Galaxy News Radio achievement. (360)


 * There is also a bug after you finish the quest the GNR radio station will get static when listening on the PipBoy, but only when the music is playing. Enclave Radio also gets it but not as often, and Agatha's station comes in clearly. It mainly happens after saving or when leaving one location and entering another. It may be a driver problem for PC users, though.