We have shown that the FIRST radio survey can be used in conjunction
with the POSS plate material as the basis for an efficient QSO survey,
highly complete for radio loud sources. With the 1994 survey data,
the current FIRST catalog covers a total 1550 
and includes
over 138,000 radio sources. Using our revised screening criteria, we
have prepared a list of 
additional QSO candidates for
spectroscopic follow-up. With this larger sample, selected in a
uniform fashion and covering a large contiguous area of sky, we will
begin to be able to address important questions regarding quasar radio
and optical luminosity functions and their evolution, the large scale
distribution of quasars, and the differences between radio loud and
radio quiet objects.
Acknowledgments
We thank Chris Impey for a thorough referee's report and numerous constructive comments. The FIRST Survey is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, NATO, the National Geographic Society, Sun Microsystems, and Columbia University. We thank Michael Strauss for taking some preliminary data in connection with this project. Part of the work reported here was done at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48. We acknowledge extensive use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This is Contribution Number 594 of the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory.
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