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Description
We have assembled an 8.4GHz survey of bright, flat-spectrum ({alpha}>-0.5) radio sources with nearly uniform extragalactic (|b|>10{deg}) coverage for sources brighter than S_4.8GHz_=65mJy. The catalog is assembled from existing observations (especially CLASS and the Wright et al., Cat VIII/38, PMN-CA survey), augmented by reprocessing of archival VLA and ATCA data and by new observations to fill in coverage gaps. We refer to this program as CRATES, the Combined Radio All-Sky Targeted Eight GHz Survey. The resulting catalog provides precise positions, subarcsecond structures, and spectral indices for some 11000 sources. We describe the morphology and spectral index distribution of the sample and comment on the survey's power to select several classes of interesting sources, especially high-energy blazars. Comparison of CRATES with other high-frequency surveys also provides unique opportunities for identification of high-power radio sources.
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