A portable chemical profiling system for cargo containers using a single, uncoated, high Q surface acoustic wave sensor. along with a high-speed chromatograph and column, a programmable gate array microprocessor, and a vapor preconcentrator, is described. this unit provides a recognizable visual vectorial image in N-dimensional space (where N equals the number of sensors) of specific vapor mixtures (fragrances) containing possibly hundreds of different chemical species in 20 s or near real time with picogram sensitivity. This new approach, based upon fast chromatography, which combines the technology with sampling system is proven to solve complex contraband detection and measurement problems with the probability of detection equal to or greater than 90% with a false alarm rate of 1%.