ACR MLG CALLED TWR ON THE WRONG FREQ AFTER HANDOFF FROM APCH CTLR. ACFT WAS MAKING A VISUAL APCH TO ATL.

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WE WERE CLRED FOR A VISUAL APCH TO A N SIDE RWY BY APCH CTL. IN THE MIDST OF COMPLETING CHKLISTS; CHOPPY AIR AND POSSIBLE WAKE TURB INDUCED AUTOTHROTTLE SURGES; I GLANCED AT THE APCH PAGE TO DOUBLE CHK THE TWR FREQ. SINCE WE WERE LNDG ON THE N SIDE COMPLEX; MY QUICK GLANCE AT A BUSY TIME IN THE COCKPIT PICKED UP THE NUMBERS IN THE N LOCATION OF THE FREQ BOX AT THE TOP OF THE CHART PAGE. I USED THIS FREQ FOR INITIAL CHK IN WITH THE TWR. IT WAS A TIME OF LIGHT TFC; FREQS WERE NOT OVERLOADED; THE TWR CORRECTED THE SITUATION; AND NO PROBS OCCURRED. BUT THIS SITUATION FOCUSED MY INTEREST ON THIS TYPE OF SITUATION. THE FOLLOWING IS PRESENTED IN THE INTEREST OF DECREASING THE ODDS OF A MISREADING OCCURRING; PERHAPS AT A BUSY TIME WHEN IT MIGHT CAUSE A PROB. HOW ARE MULTIPLE FREQS DISPLAYED ON THE APCH PAGES AT ARPTS WITH DUAL SIDE OPS; AND IS THERE A STANDARD? A QUICK CHK OF SOME KEY ARPT APCH CHARTS SUGGESTS THAT THERE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE A STANDARD FOR DEALING WITH THIS SITUATION. THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT ARPTS WITH DUAL FREQ OPS--THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT WAYS OF PRESENTING THE INFO. IT APPEARS THAT FREQ PRESENTATION ON APCH CHARTS FOR SOME ARPTS IS CONSISTENT WITH MAPPING STANDARDS. GEOGRAPHIC MAPPING (INCLUDING THE PLAN VIEW ON APCH CHARTS) USES THE STANDARD CONVENTION OF N AT THE TOP; E ON THE RIGHT; S ON THE BOTTOM AND W ON THE LEFT. THIS HAS BEEN THE CONVENTION FOR CENTURIES AND IS INGRAINED AT A SUBCONSCIOUS LEVEL IN OUR MINDS. FOLLOWING ARE EXAMPLES OF SOME CURRENT TECHNIQUES USED FOR DISPLAY OF FREQS IN THE COMS BOX AT THE TOP LEFT CORNER OF APCH PAGES; WITH COMPARISONS TO MAPPING CONVENTIONS. LAX USES 'N COMPLEX' AT TOP AND 'S COMPLEX' AT BOTTOM; SO IS CONSISTENT WITH MAP USAGE. PHX USES RWY NUMBERING; BUT LOCATES THEM CONSISTENT WITH MAP USAGE. DFW USES 'E;' 'W' TERMINOLOGY; BUT OPP TO MAPPING CONVENTIONS HAS 'E' ON THE LEFT AND 'W' ON THE RIGHT. ATL USES RWY NUMBERING. HOWEVER; IT LISTS THE N SIDE RWYS IN THE 'S' POS; AND THE S SIDE RWYS IN THE 'N' POS. ORD AND STL USE 'N' AND 'S;' BUT PLACE THEM LEFT AND RIGHT RATHER THAN ABOVE AND BELOW; THUS THE AXIS OF PRESENTATION IS OFF 90 DEGS. RDU AND DTW USE 'E' AND 'W' TERMINOLOGY (DTW USES '(E)' '(W)'); BUT OPP TO MAPPING CONVENTIONS HAVE 'E' ON THE LEFT AND 'W' ON THE RIGHT. EACH ARPT HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE COMBINATION OF LAYOUT AND SITUATION. FOR THIS AND OTHER REASONS; IT PROBABLY CANNOT BE SAID TODAY THAT THERE IS A RIGHT WAY AND A WRONG WAY TO DISPLAY FREQS. FINDING A BEST SOLUTION WILL LIKELY INVOLVE MORE RESEARCH. THE REMAINING QUESTIONS/COMMENTS MIGHT BE THOUGHT OF AS IDEA GENERATORS FOR ANYONE WHO MIGHT LIKE TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK. FOR THIS SITUATION; IS A STANDARD NEEDED? MIGHT CONSISTENCY WITH ACCEPTED GEOGRAPHICAL ORIENTATION BE A UNIFYING CONCEPT TO HELP IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUCH A STANDARD? IF A SUCH STANDARD COULD BE DEVELOPED; MIGHT IT BRING ONE MORE DETAIL INTO CONSISTENCY WITH HUMAN EMBEDDED NATURAL VIEW? IN A WORLD WITH A LOT OF BIG PROBS; DOES THIS SEEM LIKE A SMALL POINT? ARE THERE EXAMPLES IN HISTORY AND RESEARCH THAT HAVE POINTED UP SITUATIONS WHERE EVEN MINOR INCONSISTENCIES CAN TURN SMALL DETAILS INTO MAJOR CONSEQUENCES?