Air carrier flight crew reported they lost communication while on the runway awaiting takeoff clearance; causing an aircraft on approach to the runway to go-around. Flight crew re-established communication and departed.
Synopsis
Air carrier flight crew reported they lost communication while on the runway awaiting takeoff clearance; causing an aircraft on approach to the runway to go-around. Flight crew re-established communication and departed.
Narrative
We were cleared into position (line up and wait) with traffic 6 miles out. Once in position runway was verified and traffic crossing downfield was noted. I was pilot flying and also in control of flight controls as Captain. My eyes and attention were outside and on the TCAS maintaining awareness of other traffic as we were on a runway. We anxiously awaited our takeoff clearance. I'm not a huge fan of sitting for a long period on an active runway. It had been 2 or 3 minutes since our line up and wait instructions and I began to get the spidey sense that something didn't make sense. I looked up and saw the aircraft on final behind us going around. It was then we realized wed lost comms. The FO immediately looked at the radio head and realized that somehow the tower freq had been bumped and that we were on [the wrong] frequency. We immediately corrected the undesired aircraft state and reestablished comms with tower. Other traffic to our runway had been routed to runway X. [Runway] Y was certainly preferred as runway X had a strong crosswind. So we put other traffic in a precarious position dealing with the winds. We then received our takeoff clearance and departed without incident. In hindsight I should have paid closer attention to the radios while on an active runway. We are both unsure how the knob on the radio head got moved; but I'm going to add that to my mental flow when in position or taking a runway(freq; fuel; trim; flaps) for departure. I'm not sure if the controller gave us an expected time in position but it would help to make a note of that/or hack the clock.
Second reporter narrative
Radio frequency unintentionally changed while in lineup and wait. Lost comms with tower. We were departing ZZZ for ZZZ1. We switched to tower (I believe it was XXX.X) were cleared to lineup and wait and advised that there was an aircraft on 6 mile final. We were visual that traffic as we took the runway. I selected TCAS TA/RA and confirmed radar TERR. I don't recall touching anything close to the radio knobs. Once on the runway we watched a vehicle cross the runway ahead of us then waited for takeoff clearance; which I anticipated to happen quickly due to the traffic behind us. It didn't happen quickly and I noted an uncomfortable wait for takeoff clearance. The Captain mentioned that it was an uncomfortably long amount of time sitting on the runway. I looked down at the radio and saw the active freq was XXX.YXZ which was not the right tower freq and was a nonsense freq in the US (XXX.Y; XXX.YAB; XXX.YB would make sense). I noted that we were on the wrong freq; switched the radio to XXX.X; and immediately had good comms with tower. It appeared that the aircraft behind us had gone around due to towers inability to contact us. After one other aircraft landed on another runway; we received our takeoff clearance and proceeded to ZZZ1. I don't recall touching anything close to the radio knobs; but I was the FO and the PM so I'm the only one who would have been touching radio knobs. I must have inadvertently bumped the radio knob and kicked us off tower freq. i will be more careful in the future. Additionally; partway to ZZZ1 I checked the right VHF to make sure we had the right gateway freq in for ZZZ1. I noticed that the L/R switch was in the R/gateway position when it should have been in the L/Guard position. I believe that I missed the right VHF switch to guard when taxiing out and didn't have us monitoring guard while on the runway. I don't know that tower attempted contact on guard but if they did we wouldn't have heard it. The Captain told me afterward that he had guard turned down on the runway to minimize the background chatter (meows and such) so wouldn't have heard that anyway. I intended to be monitoring guard but didn't get the switch in the right position to back us up. I will be more diligent about getting that switch in the right position at the right time.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.