A sample of 669 ultra steep spectrum radio sources to find high redshift radio galaxies

Since radio sources with Ultra Steep Spectra (USS; alpha less than or simil ar to -1.30; S proportional to nu(alpha)) are efficient tracers of high red shift radio galaxies (HzRGs), we have defined three samples of such USS sou rces using the recently completed WENSS, TEXAS, MRC, NVSS and PMN radio-sur veys. Our combined sample contains 669 sources with S(140)0 > 10 mJy and co vers virtually the entire sky outside the Galactic plane (\b\ > 15 degrees) . For our 2 largest, samples, covering delta > -35 degrees, we selected onl y sources with angular sizes Theta < 1', For 410 sources, we present radio- maps with 0." 3 to similar to 5 " resolution from VLA and ATCA observations or from the FIRST survey, which allows the optical identification of these radio sources. Comparison with spectrally unbiased samples at similar flux density levels, shows that our spectral index, flux density, and angular size selections d o not affect the angular size distribution of the sample, but do avoid sign ificant contributions by faint foreground spiral galaxies. We find that the spectral index distribution of 143000 sources from the WENSS and NVSS cons ists of a steep spectrum galaxy and a flat spectrum quasar population, with the relative contribution of flat spectrum sources doubling from S-1400 > 0.1 Jy to S-1400 > 2 5 Jy, The identification fraction of our USS sources o n the POSS (R less than or similar to 20) is as low as 15%, independent of spectral index alpha < -1.30. We further show that 85% of the USS sources t hat can be identified with art X-ray source are probably contained in galax y clusters, and that alpha < -1.6 sources are excellent Galactic pulsar can didates, because the percentage of these sources is four times higher in th e Galactic piano. Our sample has been constructed to start an intensive campaign to obtain a large sample of high redshift objects (z > 3) that is selected in a way tha t does not suffer from dust extinction or any other optical bias(1).