TEMPORARY LOSS OF RADIO CONTACT WITH CTLING ARTCC CTR CTLR.

Narrative

UPON ARR IN THE BOSTON AREA CTR GAVE US A 030 DEG HDG FOR SPACING INTO THE BOSTON AREA. THE FO TOLD ME HE WAS GOING TO CALL COMPANY FOR AN IN-RANGE CALL. EVENTUALLY HE RPTED BACK TO ME WITH OUR GATE ASSIGNMENT. I COULD HEAR A CTLR TALKING TO OTHER ACFT SO IT APPEARED TO ME AS THOUGH WE HAD RADIO CONTACT WITH ATC. UNFORTUNATELY; WHEN THE COPLT ATTEMPTED TO CONTACT COMPANY HE INADVERTENTLY SWITCHED ACTIVE ATC FREQS AND WE WERE BACK WITH NEW YORK ATC AND DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT. EVENTUALLY IT BECAME OBVIOUS THAT WE HAD BEEN ON OUR ASSIGNED HDG TOO LONG AND I ASKED THE FO TO CONFIRM THAT CTR WANTED US ON A 030 DEG HDG. AT THAT TIME WE CONFIRMED THAT WE WERE ON THE WRONG FREQ. ONCE WE HAD ESTABLISHED CONTACT THE CTLR TOLD US HE HAD BEEN LOOKING FOR US WITH NO LUCK. THE REASON THIS OCCURRED IS BECAUSE THE FOREIGN LGT USES ONE RADIO MGMNT PANEL TO CTL ALL RADIOS AND IT IS DIFFICULT TO TELL WHICH RADIO YOU ARE CHANGING FREQS ON. IT IS A BAD DESIGN. ALSO ATC SHOULD BE INFORMED THAT WHEN THEY LOSE RADIO CONTACT WITH A FOREIGN LGT; THERE IS A 99 PERCENT PROBABILITY THEY WILL BE ON THE PREVIOUS CTLR'S FREQ.