The Parkes quarter-Jansky flat-spectrum sample. 2. New optical spectra and redshift measurements

We present optical spectra and redshift measurements for 178 flat-spectrum objects from the Parkes quarter-Jansky flat-spectrum sample. These spectra were obtained in order to compile a complete sample of quasars for use in a study of quasar evolution. We present a composite optical spectrum made from the subset of 109 quasars that have flux densities in the range 0.25 Jy < S 2 . 7 G H z < 0.5 Jy, and make a comparison with a composite for radio-quiet QSOs from the Large Bright Quasar Survey. Our large sample of radio-loud quasars allows us to strengthen previous reports that the Lya and CIV emission lines have larger equivalent width in radio-loud quasars than radio-quiet QSOs to greater than the 3σ level. However we see no significant difference in the equivalent widths of CIII] or MgII. We also show that the flux decrements across the Lyman-α line (D A ) measured from these spectra show the same trend with redshift as for optically selected QSOs.