Hi,
I am back to testing and proofing some effects that we might want to use, and today, I am investigating ways to make a nice scanner burst.
Lets say we have a scene with someone holding a scanner, and he presses a button and a "ring" displaces out from him in 3d space - growing larger and more transparent as it goes by, till it dissapears in the distance. Did that make sense? (it does in my head at least!) 
I have tried a few things, and by using "Radio Waves" on a solid, blurring it a little and using it as a track matte with some coloured solids, then adding Fractal noise etc, I get a pretty nice looking scanner burst. My question is, "Am I missing something easier?". If I have learned one thing from After Effects over the past year, is that there are always 1000 ways of doing any effect, and most of the times, someone has come up with an easier way than me!
Here is a clip of what I made.
Please note!: This is the very first time I have ever attempted to make a clip available online. Yes, my first YouTube upload. SO, whatever glaring mistakes I have made - well, tell me and Ill probably try to make it better (but dont hold your breath - this is just an example!) 
Once again, thanks for your time, and I look forward to finding out if there is an easier way to do this.
Pierre
PS - If you need to see project files for this to make sense, um, tell me how to make them available and I will.