The threads started within the last week or so have me curious about whether my 20 foot steel shipping container can serve as a basic Farraday cage.

I found a thread on an Australian Survivalist page that, while not addressing containers specifically, lead me to believe that it would.

http://www.aussurvivalist.com/nuclear/empprotection.htm

I currrently have a 20 foot standard solid steel shipping container which is water tight. What I got from this article is that as long as my electronic items were not in direct contact with the steel walls/roof of the container, they would have some level of shielding and might survive an EMP event.

I would appreciate thoughts of those on the SF as to what level of protection the container may provide.

Low to none.

I agree will Forest to do other prepping first, but if you really want to go down the Faraday cage road the key is a uninterrupted, grounded to earth not pipping,  copper or aluminum mesh with holes not greater then 1 mm. Whatever you put inside the cage needs to be insulated from the sided of the cage with a non conductive substance. Then you might have a chance. But remember a EMP is not just a single event, there are at least three "waves" that will hit your stuff.

This is worth repeating. As protection against EMP, "Faraday Cages" are pretty much a complete waste of effort.

Basically, just about anything that's small enough to fit inside a shipping container is too small to be significantly affected by HEMP anyway. (HEMP is simply EMP produced by a high-altitude nuclear detonation, which is the only kind of EMP that's ever been demonstrated to be a useful weapon outside a laboratory - and thus is the only kind of EMP you'd ever encounter).

HEMP causes its damage by inducing high-voltage spikes in long electrical conductors (i.e., AC power wires, phone lines, cable/internet wires, large antennas, etc.). Basically, these conductors act like antennas - and the bigger the antenna, the stronger the "reception" of the voltage spike. In devices that lack any long conductors, little of the HEMP is received, and thus little voltage spike is produced inside the device. RESULT: The device is unlikely to be damaged.

What HEMP does damage is electric utilities, phone lines, cable and internet connections, and other items that have long conductors. If you happen to have any devices plugged into these services, those devices are also likely to be damaged by HEMP. So, rather than spending time and money on something that doesn't do anything useful against HEMP, perhaps a better strategy would be to (1.) plan for not having utilities and other services available after a HEMP attack, and (2.) plan on either repairing or living without your damaged devices.

Additional reading:
Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
Federation of American Scientists: Nuclear Weapon EMP Effects
Glasstone's Blog

Thank you Ski.

I'd like to –––– the guy who first associated Faraday cages with EMP.

[There, that's a little more PC]