How about:

TRADES: {
    my @files = list_readies(); # sub is like example
    send_files( @files); # like send_file, but acts on list of files
    sleep(60*$minutes);
    redo;
}
[download]

...running nohup in background. You might want to redirect STDIN, STDOUT to /dev/null, STDERR to a logger process so it's like a user daemon

I'd be inclined to stick with the cron job idea.

After Compline,
Zaxo