In general, any varicap uhf tuner has a lower gain compared to a mechanical type, and even that often used the vhf tuner (on a 405-625 set) switched to "U" to give additional
IF gain. Therefore you may need an outboard IF preamp based on a transistor or MMIC
to overcome the losses. This site gives excellent background development of tuners;
https://www.maximus-randd.com/tv-tuner-history-pt4.html