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J.M. Wrobel (NRAO), A.R. Patnaik (MPIfR), I.W.A. Browne (NRAL), P.N. Wilkinson (NRAL)
A catalog of 2118 compact radio sources was derived from the Jodrell Bank - VLA Astrometric Survey (JVAS) of flat-spectrum sources (Patnaik et al.\ 1992, mnras, 254, 655; Browne et al.\ 1998, mnras, 293, 257; Wilkinson et al., mnras, in press). Each compact VLA source (a) has a peak flux density at 8.4~GHz \ge 50~mJy at a resolution of 200 milliarcsec; (b) contains 80% or more of the total source flux density; and (c) has a position known to an rms accuracy of 12-55 milliarcsec. The 2118 sources are uniformly distributed in the northern sky at Galactic latitudes \mid b \mid ~\ge 2.5\circ. Although these sources are primarily intended for use as phase calibrators for the Jodrell Bank MERLIN, they will also be suitable as phase calibrators for the NRAO VLA and can be considered as candidate phase calibrators for VLBI arrays (Peck & Beasley 1998, IAU Colloquium 164, 155) and the NRAO MMA (Holdaway, Owen & Rupen 1994, MMA Memo No.\ 123). Furthermore, compact radio sources close to the Galactic plane can be used to probe the interstellar medium, through studies of scintillation, angular broadening, Faraday rotation, and both molecular and atomic absorption. Compact radio sources are also useful as navigation aids for spacecraft missions to Solar System bodies. Finally, masing conditions in cometary comas can be examined by observing compact radio sources during occultation events. The catalog of 2118 compact radio sources is available via anonymous ftp from host ftp.aoc.nrao.edu; cd to directory /pub and get file sources.jvas. The file can be read by the NRAO VLBI scheduling program {\sc SCHED}.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jwrobel@nrao.edu