I've built two. For what I needed, they were definitely not a waste of time. The most important thing is to establish as near perfect a ground as is practical.

Sorry to say, but even a (practical) Faraday screen is probably not going to do you any good with a strong EMP, say from a fusion explosion in the upper atmosphere. I wouldn't worry too much about a stray CME getting to your goodies. If we get hit with solar activity that strong, it'll knock out most all of our satellite circuits anyways.

I definitely don't go along with most of the applications the author of endtimesreport espouses. I know from experience they won't pass the smoke test.