The FIRST Bright Quasar Survey. II. 60 Nights and 1200 Spectra Later

We have used the VLA FIRST survey and the APM catalog of the POSS-I plates asthe basis for constructing a new radio-selected sample of optically brightquasars. This is the first radio-selected sample that is competitive in sizewith current optically selected quasar surveys. Using only two basic criteria,radio-optical positional coincidence and optical morphology, quasars and BLLacs can be identified with 60% selection efficiency; the efficiency increasesto 70% for objects fainter than magnitude 17. We show that a more sophisticatedselection scheme can predict with better than 85% reliability which candidateswill turn out to be quasars. This paper presents the second installment of the FIRST Bright Quasar Surveywith a catalog of 636 quasars distributed over 2682 square degrees. The quasarsample is characterized and all spectra are displayed. The FBQS detects bothradio-loud and radio-quiet quasars out to a redshift z>3. We find a largepopulation of objects of intermediate radio-loudness; there is no evidence inour sample for a bimodal distribution of radio characteristics. The sampleincludes ~29 broad absorption line quasars, both high and low ionization, and anumber of new objects with remarkable optical spectra.Comment: 41 pages plus 39 gifs which contain all quasar spectra. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie