The WSRT 1.4 GHz amalgamated source counts

We present the extragalactic radio source count at 1.4GHz, based on all high-latitude, high-declination (parts of) WSRT surveys published up to 1985. The main reason for our reevaluation of the source counts from these surveys is the recently obtained result on the angular sizes of sources below, ~10 mJy, which necessitates a rediscussion of so-called "resolution-corrections" that were applied in some of the earlier surveys. We also combine the resulting WSRT source count with those obtained from recent 1.4 GHz WSRT surveys down to a limit of ~100 microJy, and with existing data at flux densities above ~140 mJy. This yields a total 1.4 GHz source count (based on observations of ~3000 sources, made with two instruments only) that spans about 5 decades of flux density. This combined count will serve as a very reliable (better than ~10% accuracy at {DELTA}log S=0.3-resolution) integral constraint for model extrapolations of the spatial density of radio galaxies beyond the redshifts out to which this density can be determined directly from observations. As such, it is an observational constraint relevant for discussions on redshift cut-offs in the spatial distribution of galaxies with active nuclei.