The Tiny Tora

As I recall the Japanese word, tora ( 虎 ) means tiger.  So I named my version of the L'il Tiger the Tiny Tora.  Now per this wiki:

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E7%8C%AB

大猫 means "big cat" -  close enough for kit work :)

Here again is the original L'il Tiger schematic:

And here is my version, Tiny Tora:

Finally I also tried this:

where I removed the top Darlington as a diode and replaced it with an NPN as a diode.  As I recall it didn't make much difference.

I can't find the prototype for the Tiny Tora today but I will dig it out and try it again.  I've also joined diyAudio.com and will try a few questions on the circuit there.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm