If you want to talk on AM put it on AM if you want to talk on SSB then put it on SSB. Did you recently purchase this radio? You do realize you need a ham radio license to use this ?If you are on the upper ham bands you better have a license or they will come and get you .Look at the the dial that has 1 - 7 on it. Now take the owners manual and look at the diagram of the knob . It should say something about frequencies and the frequency you need to operate on is from 26.965 to 27.405 MHZ .