The Westerbork Northern Sky Survey (WENSS) .1. A 570 square degree mini-survey around the north ecliptic pole

The Westerbork Northern Sky Survey (WENSS) is a low-frequency radio survey that will cover the whole sky north of delta = 30 degrees at a wavelength of 92 cm to a limiting flux density of approximately 18 mJy (5 sigma(rms)). This survey has a resolution of 54 '' x 54 '' cosec delta and a positional accuracy for strong sources of 1.5 ''. Here we present a source list comprising 11299 sources and maps of 120 extended sources for a 570 square degree region around the north ecliptic pole, the so-called mini-survey. We discuss the errors and reliability of the source parameters and the completeness of the survey.