Search function could not find my original post, so here is the update.
It is fixed.
For those that might be interested, the internal speaker was not working, where as the external cockpit speaker was.
Stripped the vhf down and with a carefull look at the speaker with a magnifying glass (my eyes are not as good as they used to be) I spotted what looked to be a loose strand of copper touching/grounding on the speaker chassis. Quick snip with the cutters. Put it back together and now OK.
I know the vhf is an old and very basic model, but the satisfaction was not from the saving of having to buy a new VHF, but more from having fixed something else on the boat myself.
Thanks to all that advised to look carefully at the speaker first, your advice turned out to be true.