Quote: Using the handles does not work at all. it jumps from 0 to 10, 14.

If "handles" means keyframes, volume range is from 0 to 100%. Dragging the blue line creates keyframes.
Pause the pointer on a KF and the KF dot should turn red. Right-click it and options will be shown.
There's also the EDIT AUDIO button, where the Wave Editor can be employed.

Is there a compression for audio somewhere within the program and if there is, is there a way to turn it off?

Wave Editor has a dynamic range option, OFF by default. Other than that I'm not aware of compression in PD.

I had trouble trying to adjust the handles accurately, then I found out that if you widen the audio track, by dragging the bottom down, the track is much wider and the handles are easy to adjust. Move your mouse to the header area just to the left of the timeline, move to the bottom of the area, your mouse will turn into a double headed arrow, click and drag down.

There is a built in "automatic level control" in PD. I inquired about it in the past and was told that there was no way to disable it. If you put a tone of various levels onto the time line, you can see the effects of the ALC.

Here's an address to download free level meters. I use these all the time. Just remember, they work off your sound card, so you have to calibrate them to whatever level you have set for your speaker volume.

http://minorshill.co.uk/pc2/meters.html#digital